Gastric Sleeve or the Injections? What Changed, and What Didn't
Quick answer
Gastric Sleeve or the Injections? What Changed, and What Didn't
- Prof. Dr. Hasan Erdem — score 30.31 / 67
- Prof. Dr. Hasan Altun — score 27.45 / 67
- Doç. Dr. Gökmen Öztürk — score 18.39 / 67
· Ratings from Google; ranking formula published on /how-we-rank
Three years ago, the conversation about severe obesity in Turkey had one surgical answer and a long list of things that had not worked. Then the injections arrived, and the question changed shape.
This page is about that change, and then about the ten Istanbul surgeons who do the operation, ranked by the same published formula as every other list on this site.
What actually changed
Semaglutide and tirzepatide — the molecules behind the brand names people arrive with — put a serious non-surgical option on the table where, for most patients, there had effectively been none. That is a real change and it deserves to be stated plainly rather than talked around by anyone who performs surgery for a living.
What did not change is who decides. The route that fits depends on how much weight there is to lose, what else is happening alongside it — diabetes, sleep apnoea, joint damage, blood pressure — what has already been tried, and what a clinician finds when they examine you. None of that is knowable from a web page, including this one.
The three ways they now meet
The framing that treats drugs and surgery as rivals is the least useful one available. In practice they meet in three different places, and they are worth separating because the questions you should ask differ in each.
Before surgery. A patient who is too heavy to operate on safely may be prescribed a GLP-1 first, to bring the operative risk down. Here the drug is not an alternative to the operation — it is what makes the operation possible.
Instead of surgery. For some patients the drug does the work and no operation follows. This is the case that genuinely did not exist a few years ago.
After surgery. Weight regain years after a sleeve is a known outcome, not a rare failure, and a drug is one of the tools used when it happens.
A surgeon who describes only the middle case — or dismisses it — is describing their own practice rather than your options.
What to ask, in either direction
These are the questions that separate a consultation from a sales conversation. They work whichever route you are being pointed toward.
- Which of the three situations above is mine, in your view, and why? The answer should reference your own measurements and history, not a general argument about drugs versus surgery.
- What happens when the drug stops? Regain after discontinuation is documented and every honest prescriber will say so. Ask what the plan is — indefinite treatment, a transition, or surgery later.
- What is the follow-up, and for how long? Both routes need lifelong monitoring. Surgery adds vitamin and mineral supplementation that does not end.
- Who performs the operation, and where? A named surgeon and a named hospital, in writing, before any deposit. Ask this even when the answer seems obvious.
- What is the revision or complication pathway once I am home? This is the question most often skipped and most expensive to skip. Ask who is responsible and what it costs.
The ten surgeons
- Rank 1
Prof. Dr. Hasan Erdem
4.9(297 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 30.3/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 30.31 / 67How we rank
Prof. Dr. Hasan Erdem performs obesity surgery from his practice in Altunizade, Üsküdar, and runs the Dr. HE Obesity Clinic in Pendik.
- Rank 2
Prof. Dr. Hasan Altun
4.9(173 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 27.4/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 27.45 / 67How we rank
Prof. Dr. Hasan Altun performs obesity and metabolic surgery under the Interbariatrics name, based in the Akasya complex in Acıbadem, Üsküdar.
- Rank 3
Doç. Dr. Gökmen Öztürk
4.4(46 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 18.4/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 18.39 / 67How we rank
Doç. Dr. Gökmen Öztürk practises in Bahçelievler and describes his field as obesity and diabetes surgery together — the surgical treatment of type 2 diabetes being the most discussed secondary effect of these operations.
- Rank 4
Op. Dr. Murat Üstün
4.4(36 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 17.3/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 17.25 / 67How we rank
Op. Dr. Murat Üstün works from Liv Vadi Hospital in Sarıyer under the İstanbul Bariatric Center name; sleeve gastrectomy and the gastric balloon are among the procedures he performs.
- Rank 5
Doç. Dr. Vahit Mutlu
5.0(22 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 17.0/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 17.02 / 67How we rank
Doç. Dr. Vahit Mutlu is a staff surgeon in general surgery at Memorial Ataşehir Hospital. His practice covers obesity surgery and cancer surgery together.
- Rank 6
Prof. Dr. Aziz Sümer
4.3(32 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 16.3/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 16.32 / 67How we rank
Prof. Dr. Aziz Sümer practises general surgery from his practice in Gaziosmanpaşa, with obesity surgery and cancer surgery both within his field.
- Rank 7
Prof. Dr. Servet Rüştü Karahan
4.8(20 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 15.9/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 15.87 / 67How we rank
Prof. Dr. Servet Rüştü Karahan practises general and obesity surgery from his practice on İncirli Caddesi in Bakırköy.
- Rank 8
Prof. Dr. Koray Karabulut
5.0(13 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 14.3/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 14.33 / 67How we rank
Prof. Dr. Koray Karabulut works in the general surgery department at Memorial Göztepe Hospital.
- Rank 9
Doç. Dr. Mehmet Celal Kızılkaya
5.0(13 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 14.3/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 14.33 / 67How we rank
Doç. Dr. Mehmet Celal Kızılkaya works in the general surgery department at Memorial Bahçelievler Hospital.
- Rank 10
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Yerdel
4.8(8 Google reviews)Istanbul
- Rating & review volume
- Rating & review volume 11.5/50
- Accreditation
- Accreditation 0.0/10
- Years in operation
- Years in operation 0.0/5
- Second-source verification
- Second-source verification 0.0/2
Score 11.45 / 67How we rank
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Yerdel performs obesity surgery from his centre in Polat Tower, Fulya, Şişli.
Why these numbers look small
Every score above sits well below what a clinic scores elsewhere on this site, and the reason is arithmetic rather than judgement.
Two of the formula's four components cannot apply to a person. Accreditation is granted to facilities — JCI and ISO are awarded to hospitals and clinics against standards about how an organisation is run, and an individual cannot hold either. Years in operation reads a business's founding year, which is not the same thing as a surgeon's years in practice, and we do not substitute one for the other.
Then there is volume. Review counts on this page run from eight to 297, where a hair transplant clinic in our other rankings can carry several thousand. The formula deliberately weighs a rating by how many people stand behind it, so a perfect 5.0 across thirteen reviews scores below a 4.9 across nearly three hundred. That is why the two surgeons at the top of this page are the two with the largest review bases, and why a flawless average does not put anyone first.
Never compare a score here with a score on a clinic page. Within this page the comparison holds, because all ten are missing the same components.
What this page cannot tell you
It reports four things: the public Google rating with the number of reviews behind it, any accreditation on record, an approximate operating history, and whether a second independent rating platform has been captured. That is the whole basis of every position above, and no surgeon can pay to improve one.
It cannot tell you whether you should have the operation, whether a drug would serve you better, which technique suits your anatomy, what any of it will cost, or how your own result would turn out. Every one of those belongs in a consultation.
This page is not medically reviewed, and that is a deliberate omission rather than a gap. This site's named medical reviewer is a plastic surgeon; obesity surgery and GLP-1 prescribing sit outside his specialty, and attaching his name here would turn a real credential into decoration. When a bariatric specialist reviews this page, their name will appear on it.
Frequently asked questions
- Do the injections make bariatric surgery unnecessary?
- For some people they may; for others they do not, and no page on the internet can tell you which you are. That judgement rests on your BMI, the conditions you have alongside the weight, what you have already tried, and what a clinician finds when they examine you. What has genuinely changed is that a serious non-surgical option now exists where, a few years ago, there was effectively none — so the honest framing is that there are now two routes to discuss rather than one to accept.
- Why do the surgeons on this page score lower than the clinics elsewhere on the site?
- Two reasons, and neither is about skill. First, two of the formula's four components cannot apply to a person: accreditation is awarded to facilities, and years-in-operation reads a business's founding year. Second, individual surgeons carry far smaller review counts than clinics — on this page they run from eight to 297, where a hair transplant clinic can carry thousands — and the formula weighs a rating by how many people stand behind it. A surgeon's reachable maximum is therefore about 50 rather than 67, and a score here should never be compared with a score on a clinic page.
- Two surgeons have the same score. How was the order decided?
- Positions 8 and 9 both compute to 14.33, because both carry a 5.0 average across thirteen reviews. The published tie-break applies in order: higher score first, then the larger Google review count, then the slug alphabetically. Their review counts are identical too, so the third rule decided it. That rule exists so no ordering on this site is ever an unexplained editorial choice — it is written down at /how-we-rank.
- Is this page medically reviewed?
- No, and deliberately so. This site's named medical reviewer is a plastic surgeon; obesity surgery and GLP-1 prescribing are outside his specialty, and putting his name on this page would turn a real credential into decoration. The page therefore restricts itself to what it can verify — who these surgeons are, where they practise, what they publish, and what their public ratings say — and sends every clinical question to a consultation.