If excess weight is affecting your daily life or your health, weight-loss surgery may help you finally achieve long-lasting results. The Temple Bariatric Program offers proven surgical weight-loss procedures, with a dedicated, multidisciplinary team to help you through every step of the way.

Depending on your procedure, weight-loss surgery may help you lose 40% to 70% of excess body weight over a period of 2 to 3 years. It all depends on your commitment to the plan you and your Temple weight-loss team design together.

Improved Quality of Life with Weight-Loss Surgery

Weight-loss surgery often results in an overall increase in your quality of life. As you begin to lose weight, you may notice improvements in certain conditions:

• Diabetes and high blood pressure may improve or resolve completely.

• Your risk of heart-related conditions — such as heart attack — may be reduced.

• Sleep apnea often resolves, and CPAP therapy may no longer be necessary.

• Symptoms associated with arthritis in weight-bearing joints improve.

• GERD symptoms, such as heartburn, can resolve.

• Urinary stress incontinence may markedly improve.

• Infertility may resolve with significant weight loss.

Hear from others who have had weight-loss surgery >

Minimally Invasive Procedures

Temple offers a number of bariatric and metabolic surgery procedures that can often be done laparoscopically or robotically. This approach may result in faster recovery times and a decreased risk of complications. Those procedures are:

• Roux-en-Y gastric bypass
• Gastric sleeve

Our dedicated bariatric surgical units feature rooms and equipment designed especially for the unique needs of bariatric patients.

The Temple Bariatric Program is accredited by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP).

To find out if bariatric surgery is right for you, attend a live virtual informational seminar on Zoom. Or, sign up for our on-demand seminar to watch whenever it's convenient for you.

Surgery and Weight-Loss Medications

GLP-1 agonist medications like Ozempic (semaglutide) have helped millions of people lose weight, and have given healthcare providers another much-needed tool to help people manage their struggles with obesity. Short-term results of these drugs are promising in patients on the lower end of the obesity spectrum, but there is lack of evidence on the long-term effects of these drugs and their effectiveness in patients who have much higher levels of obesity.  

Generally, individuals whose BMIs are higher than 40, surgical intervention is still the gold standard. These procedures enable people to lose large amounts of weight and cure their co-existing weight-related conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and fatty liver disease, leading them to much heathier lives in the long term. The safety of these operations have dramatically improved in recent years, making this a great option for patients with obesity to consider. 

Because it is complicated and influenced by many different factors, weight management looks different for everyone. Along with nutrition and exercise regimens, your physician may feel you are a good candidate for a weight-loss medication in addition to surgery. This combination treatment can be a key part of the weight management journey, which can lead to the curing of obesity and its related conditions.   

A Program Focused on You

The Temple Bariatric Program focuses on overall lifestyle change, including bariatric and metabolic surgery. From the time you enter the program, and long after your surgery, you’ll learn how to modify your behaviors and adapt to a new way of living. Your dedicated, multidisciplinary support team will see you through every step of the way, with team members who help you plan and get over the hurdles.

In addition to the board-certified surgeons, nurse practitioners and surgical assistants, our comprehensive multidisciplinary program includes registered dietitians, psychologists, nurses, case managers and home caregivers who provide education, resources and encouragement.

Download our bariatric surgery checklist >

Are You a Candidate for Weight-Loss Surgery?

Weight-loss surgery may be an option for you if you meet the following criteria:

• Your BMI (body mass index) is over 40.
• You have a BMI of 35 or more, plus two or more medical problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, arthritis or heart disease.

Check your BMI with our calculator:

Support Classes

In the weeks and months leading up to your procedure, and long after you have healed from surgery, you have access to a network of support. Attend a Temple Bariatric Surgery Support Group today.