Bariatric Surgery Program
About Our Staff
- Surgical Team
Our comprehensive surgical team is led by Siva Vithiananthan, MD, chief of minimally invasive and bariatric surgery at The Miriam Hospital. Vithiananthan's surgical practice is focused on providing state-of-the-art, personalized patient care. He specializes in laparoscopic surgical procedures, both bariatric and non-bariatric, and has a long history of running successful programs in bariatric surgery. Our surgical team’s pre-surgery work-up helps to avoid complications by identifying potential problems before they arise and generally meets insurance companies’ basic requirements for authorization.
- Bariatric Care Coordinator/Nurse Practitioner
Our nurse practitioner has extensive experience helping surgical patients. Duties include reviewing the patients’ histories, obtaining insurance authorizations, and educating and supporting the weight loss surgery patients both preoperatively and postoperatively. Our nurse practitioner is also responsible for training the nursing staff at the hospital to provide the safe and specialized care our bariatric patients need.
- Anesthesia Team
A select group of experienced anesthesiologists with expertise in bariatric patients and laparoscopic surgery cares for our patients during surgery.
- Operating Room Staff
The Miriam Hospital has a dedicated team of nurses and OR technicians familiar with the special needs of bariatric patients. They are experienced with the specialized equipment required for morbidly obese patients and laparoscopic surgery, including extended retractors, bariatric staplers, and the operating tables and padding that these surgeries require.
- Nursing Care
The Miriam Hospital is known for its compassionate nursing care, and has been recognized with multiple Magnet Awards for nursing excellence. We routinely conduct teaching programs to keep the nurses informed about the newest advances in care specific to our patients. Our nurses are aware of the important issues involved in the care of our patients, possible complications, and how to prevent, identify and properly treat them so that they are kept to a minimum. Nurses are trained to handle specialized equipment, including bariatric beds, CPAP and BiPAP machines. The patient care associates work closely with the nurses to help patients walk as soon as possible after surgery.
- Nutrition Counseling
Our dedicated registered dietician is an important part of the weight loss journey. Our dietician will help patients overcome their eating problems by identifying and educating them about their new diet preoperatively and postoperatively.
The following specialists from The Miriam Hospital are closely involved in preoperative and postoperative care of patients:
- Behavioral Therapists/Psychologists: A team of behavioral therapists led by Ronald Thebarge, PhD, will be closely working with the patients, encouraging supportive behaviors, identifying risk behaviors, and helping them to overcome obstacles that could affect long-term success.
- Pulmonologists: A dedicated team of pulmonologists assists our patients with pulmonary diseases such as sleep apnea, COPD, emphysema and asthma. We also work closely with The Miriam Hospital sleep lab where our patients are treated preoperatively for sleep apnea diagnosis and treatment.
- Radiologists: The Miriam Hospital has state-of-the-art technology in radiology to accommodate morbidly obese patients for their preoperative and postoperative testing. Radiologists are also involved in postoperative adjustment of the lap band.
Other specialists involved in our group include:
- Primary care physicians
- Endocrinologists
- Cardiologists
- Gastroenterologists
- Rehabilitation medicine specialists
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