Minimally Invasive/Bariatric Surgery

The Minimally Invasive Surgery section at Stanford University does a wide range of advanced laparoscopic cases including bariatric surgery, advanced gallbladder surgery, surgery for reflux disease, repair of paraesophageal hernias, splenectomies, adrenalectomies, inguinal hernias, incisional hernias and insertion of feeding tubes. The surgeons in the section include: Myriam J. Curet, M.D., F.A.C.S., who is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Program. Dr. Curet received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and went to the University of Chicago for her Surgery residency. She did an advanced fellowship in Minimally Invasive Surgery with Dr. Carl Zucker at the University of New Mexico . She was then Director of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Program at the University of New Mexico for six years and has been on the Stanford faculty since August 2000. Dr. Curet performs many advanced minimally invasive procedures and has been performing bariatric surgery since July 2002. She is a member of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. She is past president of the Association of Women Surgeons and is actively involved in the American College of Surgeons. She has a national reputation as a surgical educator and has served on numerous national education committees.

Dr. John Morton , M.D., M.P.H., M.H.A., is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of Bariatric Surgery at Stanford. Dr. Morton received his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine and completed his surgery residency at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle , Washington . He has completed two fellowships: a research fellowship at the University of Washington as a Robert Wood-Johnson Clinical Scholar and a Minimally Invasive Surgery fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Capital Hill. Dr. Morton has been a member of the Stanford faculty since July 2003 and has performed bariatric surgery since July 2001. He is a member of the American Bariatric Surgery Society, the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons and Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. Dr. Morton has an interest in outcomes research and is involved on a national level in various projects assessing surgical outcomes.

Dr. Bassem Safadi is Assistant Professor of Surgery at Stanford University and is Director of the Bariatric Program at the Palo Alto V.A. Medical Center . Dr. Safadi received his medical degree at the American University of Beirut and did his residency at the Washington Hospital Center and Case Western Reserve University . Dr. Safadi completed a fellowship in Advanced Minimally Invasive Surgery at UCSF and has been on faculty at Stanford since May 2000. He has performed bariatric surgery since July 2001 and works part-time at Stanford as part of the Bariatric Surgery Program.

In addition to the above faculty, other members of the Stanford Bariatric Program include Dr. Beverly Jump, an internist who assesses all the patients, Anna Peters , a nurse practitioner, who is responsible for patient education, Robin Apple, Ph.D., who is available to do psychological screening on all preoperative patients, and Kristine Burge, a clinical nutritionist, who is available for consultation on all preoperative patients.

The Stanford Bariatric Program, which has been in place for over 4 years, has been extremely successful. It currently does approximately 300 cases per year. Our main focus is laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Recently, Dr. Morton has added the Lap Band procedure. The Lap Band is a quicker operation with fewer complications than the gastric bypass, but is associated with slower and less weight loss. However, it is a good alternative for selective patients. In addition, we have recently started doing robotic laparoscopic gastric bypasses. The use of the Intuitive DaVinci system allows us more precision in creating a hand sewn anastomosis.