Our surgeons and specialists offer exceptional care to help you meet your weight-loss goals. OHSU Health Bariatric Services offers care at OHSU and at Hillsboro Medical Center, an OHSU partner.

You'll find:

• Doctors who perform hundreds of bariatric surgeries a year.
• Surgeons with advanced training in minimally invasive techniques.
• A high rate of successful weight loss and improved health. Upward of 80 percent of patients lose most of their excess weight and see a big improvement in obesity-related health conditions.
• An innovative nonsurgical weight-loss treatment.
• Oregon’s leading center for patients who need a second bariatric surgery because of complications or poor results.
• A full team of experts to support you at every step.

Comprehensive care

Your care team will include a range of specialists working together to support your success. Our programs also include:

• Walk to Recovery: A scavenger hunt and certificate for walking distance will get you up and around soon after surgery. This helps speed your healing.
• Medication review: While you are in the hospital, we will review your medication in detail. We’ll make sure you know how and when to take it. We’ll review it again at your first post-surgery appointment.

Learn more about our care:

• Before surgery
• After surgery

Our treatments

Your care team will assess your physical and mental condition, your weight-loss goals, medications you take and other factors before recommending a treatment plan.

Gastric sleeve

This procedure, also called a sleeve gastrectomy, is the most common bariatric surgery. About three-fourths of your stomach is removed, reducing capacity for food. Gastric sleeve is less disruptive to your digestive system than gastric bypass.

• Learn more about gastric sleeve surgery.

Gastric bypass

In gastric bypass, your surgeon separates your stomach and creates a small stomach pouch that is hooked to the middle of your small intestine. The rest of your stomach is attached lower to your small intestine. This reroutes food past your stomach and upper intestine, reducing how much food you can take in and changing your metabolism. 

• Learn more about gastric bypass surgery.

ORBERA gastric balloon

We use a nonsurgical system called ORBERA in which doctors guide a balloon into your stomach. The balloon is filled with saline, leaving less room for food. The balloon is removed after six months. That’s followed by six months of intensive guidance in new eating and exercise habits.

• Learn more about ORBERA gastric balloon.

Revisional bariatric surgery

You may be referred to OHSU if a previous bariatric surgery led to complications or too-little weight loss. This happens for only a small percentage of bariatric patients. We are a leading center for revisional surgery to adjust or reverse the original procedure, or to switch to a different treatment.

• Learn more about revisional bariatric surgery.

Lap gastric banding

We rarely do gastric banding surgery, in which a silicon band is put around the upper part of your stomach to restrict food intake. This technique has proved the least effective surgery for weight loss. It also has the highest rate of needing a second operation. Nearly a quarter of bands need to be removed in five or 10 years because of complications or poor results.

Once popular, lap banding now makes up less than 4 percent of U.S. bariatric surgeries. Still, we may consider gastric banding for certain patients. It involves placing a saline-filled band to create a small pouch at the top of the stomach. The band is connected, with a tube, to a port under the skin of your belly. The surgeon gradually tightens the band to restrict the amount of food you can eat.