Mercy Medical Center has become the first hospital on Long Island to offer a new single-incision Lap-Band(r) (laparoscopic gastric banding) procedure for weight loss surgery. SILS is an important new option that holds the potential of less pain, fewer scars and quicker recovery. Mercy received the 2008 Bariatric Surgery Excellence Award(tm) from HealthGrades(r), the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization, and is a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence designated the American Society For Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

NewHope Bariatrics has launched an outpatient weight-loss surgery venture with Dr. David Voellinger, a Charlotte physician who was the first to perform Lap-Band surgery in the Charlotte area.

Voellinger will perform Lap-Band outpatient procedures at the local offices of Surgical Care Affiliates. The procedure is performed laparoscopically, typically in less than one hour, and patients return home the same day. Unlike a gastric bypass procedure, use of the band is adjustable and reversible.

More information here.