Achieving a new way of life through permanent weight loss is the goal of the Mount Sinai Brooklyn Bariatric Surgery/Weight-Loss Program. In a community hospital setting, under the leadership of a highly experienced surgeon, a multidisciplinary team will personalize your pathway to help you achieve your weight-loss goals. Our team will help you find the right solution with the best strategies to enable you to sustain your new lifestyle. We will guide you step-by-step through the process that will help change old habits and possibly treat weight-related health problems like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

A Personalized Journey

At Mount Sinai Brooklyn, you can expect to receive highly personalized care in a community hospital setting. Our team will begin by assessing if you are a candidate for bariatric surgery through an initial consultation with the bariatric surgeon. Your surgeon and your entire health care team will help you set and achieve goals for your weight loss post-surgery and discuss the best surgical option for you based on your lifestyle, weight goals, and current health. You will be encouraged to incorporate exercise into your lifestyle as soon as you are able, and to follow your surgeon’s directions about what and how much to eat and drink. We suggest that you speak to others who have had bariatric surgery so that you can better understand the benefits and possible challenges you may encounter. 

Types of Surgery We Offer

We offer several types of bariatric surgery including:

• Duodenal switch: the procedure combines a sleeve gastrectomy (removing approximately 60-70 percent of the stomach) with an intestinal bypass
• Gastric bypass: the surgeon creates a pouch (the size of an egg) from the upper part of the stomach, which will significantly limit the amount of food a patient can consume and bypasses a portion of the intestines to limit the absorption of calories. 
• Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy: this procedure modifies the stomach into a long, thin tube,  limiting the number of calories to be eaten
• Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding: a silicone band is placed on the upper stomach to restrict the volume of food consumed
• Revisional surgery: patients who have undergone previous bariatric surgery and develop complications or who do not achieve their weight-loss goals may be good candidates for further surgery. While these revisional surgeries are often more complex than initial bariatric surgeries, our skilled surgeons have extensive experience performing these surgeries. You may be considered for surgery even if you have been turned down by other surgeons. 
• Robotic assisted surgery: many of these operations are performed using the most advanced and innovative approaches and instrumentation to optimize our patients’ outcomes.

Benefits of Bariatric Surgery

In addition to treating obesity, which will improve your overall health as well as how you feel about yourself, bariatric surgery can help prevent, slow the progression of, or even reverse certain obesity-related conditions, These include: 

• Type 2 diabetes
• Gastroesophageal reflux (GERD)
• Degenerative joint disease
• Coronary artery disease (CAD)
• Chronic back pain
• Hypertension
• Fatty liver disease
• Many types of cancer

Surgical Expertise

Mount Sinai Brooklyn Bariatrics offers state-of-the art, minimally invasive laparoscopic and robotic weight-loss surgery. As highly experienced experts, we use the latest techniques that will minimize your scarring and reduce your recovery time and the length of hospitalization. Your surgeon will help choose the correct approach based on your individual weight-loss needs and goals.

How Surgery Works

Bariatric surgery makes it easier for you to feel fuller with less food. While each procedure limits the amount of food you can eat, and how much food your body can digest in its own unique way, all forms of bariatric surgery succeed based on these metabolic principles:

• Restriction: reducing the size of the stomach restricts how much you eat and makes you feel full more quickly
• Hormonal effect: modifying how the body produces hormones, particularly ones made by the gastrointestinal tract, reduces the feeling of hunger. This affects your metabolism and helps improve or eliminate diabetes and high blood pressure
• Decreased absorption: some procedures can help limit the amount of food that can enter your small intestine, decreasing in the number of calories your body absorbs

Multidisciplinary Approach

Our bariatric surgeons work closely with other Mount Sinai service providers to put you on a path to health and weight-loss success. At Mount Sinai, you will receive counseling before and after surgery. We ensure that you are ready for surgery by consulting with psychiatrists and nutritionists, and we provide you with pre-operative patient education.

If you have diabetes, your surgeon may also consult with an endocrinologist to discuss how surgery may improve your metabolism. If you have high blood pressure (hypertension), we collaborate closely with a medical internist. We may also discuss your case with a gastroenterologist. Our patients appreciate this collaborative, team approach, which ensures a holistic approach to their health care.

Postoperative Support Groups

Your peers can be a great source of strength for you post-surgery, as you adjust and learn how to take care of yourself in new ways. Our postoperative support groups allow you to hear from others who are going through what you’re going through, or who may be living postoperatively for some time. You may get some good ideas that will help you with recovery or with sticking to your new healthy lifestyle goals. Just sharing your experiences can help you with your process, as you grow strong and healthy, eating less and becoming very deliberate about when you eat and what you eat. Ask your surgeon and health care team about when the postoperative support groups meet so you can plan to attend.

Why Mount Sinai Brooklyn?

As part of the Mount Sinai Health System, which is ranked among the best hospitals in the nation, Mount Sinai Brooklyn bariatric patients will be able to access additional specialized services at any of the many locations throughout the greater New York area. We launched our bariatric surgery service to help meet the ever-growing need to treat obesity in Brooklyn, Long Island, and the greater New York City area. Given its high standards of excellence and under the leadership of Danny A. Sherwinter, MD, a recognized leader in bariatric/weight-loss surgery, the hospital continues to advance its mission of meeting important community needs.

Our Team

The Bariatric Surgery/Weight-Loss Program at Mount Sinai Brooklyn is headed by Danny A. Sherwinter, MD, a leader in minimally invasive and robotic bariatric/weight-loss surgery. Dr. Sherwinter and his team offer comprehensive and customized treatment plans to help patients achieve their weight-loss goals in a comfortable and caring environment. 

Danny A. Sherwinter, MD