The Laparoscopic Surgery Center offers an exclusive and attractive medical tourism package, its people are characterized by their warmth and kindness, high quality medical, a high spirit for customer service, and personalized attention.

Founding member of the Bariatric Center in Costa Rica. Center of excellence in Bariatric surgery with high indexes of success due to its mulitdisciplinary approach to the management of obesity.

Is Weight Loss Surgery right for me?

Bariatric surgery may be the next step for people who remain severely obese after trying non-surgical approaches, or for people who have an obesity-related disease. Surgery to produce weight loss is a serious undertaking. Anyone thinking about undergoing this type of operation should understand what it involves.

Indications/qualifications

•You must be at least 18 years of age. If you are over 64 years old, you must be referred by your doctor and be in good health, since surgery is higher risk in patients over 60 years old even with testing before surgery.

•Your body mass index (BMI) is greater than 40 kg/m2. Or you are about 100 pounds overweight for men or 80 pounds overweight for women?

•Your BMI is between 35-39.9 and you have a serious obesity-related health problem, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep apnea or degenerative joint disease

•Overweight for more than 5 years

•You have taken serious attempts to lose weight and only had short term effect

•You do not drink alcohol in excess

•You do not smoke

•You have no serious disease that may have caused your obesity, such as steroid-secreting tumors

•Have no serious untreated, underlying psychiatric disorders, or current issues with substance abuse, or narcotic dependency

•You are willing to be monitored by a specialist who is treating you

•An understanding of the operation and the lifestyle changes you will have to make

•Be medically healthy enough to tolerate major surgery

•You are not extremely limited in activity. You must be able to perform aerobic and anaerobic exercise as with any weight loss program.

You should take into consideration of all the hard work, lifestyle change and motivation it will take after surgery. Obesity surgery is an effective treatment for morbid obesity, although the pounds do not come off by themselves. The surgery is an aid to help achieve lasting results by limiting your food intake.

What are your options?

The Adjustable Gastric Band Surgery uses the laparoscopic technique. The Adjustable Gastric Band Surgery consists of the placement of a band or ring around the upper part of the stomach. With the placement of the ring, we provoke an important reduction in the storage capacity of the stomach and early satisfaction sensation. As a result, the patient reports a dramatic decrease in food intake.

Sleeve Gastrectomy

The laparoscopic Gastric Sleeve Surgery is also known as Vertical Gastrectomy or Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy Surgery. Just as with the Gastric Band Surgery, the Gastric Sleeve Surgery is a restrictive surgery that reduces the capacity of the stomach, thus producing a lower food intake.

Gastric reduction is done with a single cut and no joints to the intestine, which allows keeping the integrity of the gastrointestinal tract. As a result of this surgical cut, the patient will not have mal-absorption of nutrients, which facilitates the later therapy because it does not require the administration of a nutritional or mineral support in a permanent manner.

Gastric Bypass Surgery

The gastric bypass surgery has been practiced in our countries for almost fifty years. In other words, it is a widely known surgery with hundreds of thousands of patients that had undergone this procedure. The boom during the last decade is due to universal epidemics of obesity and diabetes, and also to the use of the technique using laparoscopic procedures.

The Gastric Bypass Surgery in Y de Roux is a bariatric surgery that combines two weight loss methods: first, there is a reduction in the gastric capacity (similar to what happens in the adjustable gastric band surgery and the gastric sleeve surgery and second, there is a mal-absorption component (that is, the little that is taken is not fully absorbed), thus contributing to weight loss.

In order to accomplish the mal-absorption, an intestinal bridge is made during the surgery, which is responsible of the metabolic changes that act directly over the metabolism and the regulation of glucose. With this intestinal bridge, we induce the necessary physiological changes for the reduction of sugar level in the blood. After the surgery, the patient needs to have a close post-operatory control because he requires hundreds of nutrients like Vitamin B-13, Iron and Calcium, mainly.

Because of this, the candidate to this type of surgery should meet the medical psychological and nutritional requirements.

The Laparoscopic Surgery Center helps you to understand the symptoms, causes, treatment, and what you have to expect from the surgery Dr. Ariel Rivera has a solid experience in the field of Gastrointestinal surgery . He is a University undergraduate and post graduate professor and National and International Speaker. Dr. Ariel Rivera has broad experience in laparascopic weight loss surgeries and abdominal or gastric surgeries including: gastric bypass gastric band, gasric sleeve, gall bladder, hiatal hernia, inguinal hernia, appendix, colon and other soft organs.

Dr. Ariel Rivera will perform a comprehensive consultation with you regarding the surgery criteria and different options of Bariatric surgery that fits your specific needs.

If you are interested in making an appointment, have questions, want to send us a referral, please call the main number at (877) 546-8591 to speak with a patient counselor to provide you with a quote and phone consultation with the surgeon. You can also write to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Register Here online.