Training
A bariatric fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic
Board certification in general surgery, then fellowship training in bariatric and minimally invasive surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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216-377-7257 [email protected]Lyndhurst
5035 Mayfield Rd, Suite 100Westlake
25200 Center Ridge Rd, Suite 1100Dr. Linden Karas spent 9 years building bariatric programs inside Northeast Ohio health systems. She opened this practice to perform the same operations without the overnight stay and without the hospital facility fee attached to it.
Before The Practice
Every part of how this practice runs came out of something Dr. Karas watched happen inside a hospital bariatric program and decided to change.
Training
Board certification in general surgery, then fellowship training in bariatric and minimally invasive surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
The hospital years
Most surgeons join a bariatric program that already exists. She built them: protocols, nursing education, dietitian workflows, data collection, complication tracking and the site visits that come with national quality standards. Her work has been verified through MBSAQIP more than once.
The audit
She went back through all of them with one question: did that person need a hospital bed, or did she admit them because that is how it has always been done. At least half were healthy going in, had an operation that went exactly right, and were walking and drinking by that afternoon.
The gap
Bariatric surgery in an ambulatory surgery center has been performed safely across the United States for years, and it accelerated during COVID when every hospital in the country had to find ways to keep people out of inpatient beds.
It never made its way to Northeast Ohio, and the reason was not safety and not novelty. Somebody has to be the first to do it in a region, and until Karas Weight Loss & Wellness opened, nobody north of Columbus had.
The practice
The practice opened with offices in Lyndhurst and Westlake and surgical time at Legacy Surgery Center in Lyndhurst, an accredited ambulatory surgery center where Dr. Karas holds an ownership interest. An ASC does not carry the facility fee a hospital adds to the same operation by the same surgeon with the same instruments, and for patients paying out of pocket that gap runs to roughly half the total cost.
The sequence of care changed too. In most bariatric programs the surgeon is the last person a patient meets. Here, patients meet Dr. Karas a month or two in, not the week before their operation.
Why It Exists
“I didn’t come to this hospital. I came to you.”A patient, to Dr. Karas
It took her a while to understand that sentence, because on paper it should not make any difference. The same operating room, the same anesthesia team, the same surgeon. What that patient was saying is that when you give somebody permission to permanently change your body, you are trusting a person rather than a building.
What Was Added
Surgery answers one part of obesity. The practice grew to cover the rest of it, because patients kept arriving with problems an operating room does not solve.
Surgical
Sleeve gastrectomy, gastric bypass and revisional surgery, plus incisionless endoscopic sleeve and TORe, the Allurion balloon program and magnetic Mag-DI, procedures that did not exist when she finished fellowship.
Surgical weight lossMedical
Monthly visits with Dr. Karas, monthly nutrition education, a physical therapist-written activity prescription, twice monthly coaching, and body composition and metabolic testing every three months. Back on Track covers post-bariatric patients who hit a snag.
Medical weight lossGeneral surgery
Hernia repair, anti-reflux surgery, endoscopy and colonoscopy, with surgeon consultations typically within one week of referral instead of the six to twelve week wait common inside the health systems.
Request an appointmentWhere we operate today. Legacy Surgery Center, Lyndhurst · Big Creek Surgery Center, Middleburg Heights · UH Geauga Medical Center, Chardon · Southwest General, Middleburg Heights
Find an officeBegin Today
Same-day surgery, comprehensive medical weight loss, and a consultation with the person who will actually operate on you.
Limited time
One visit with Dr. Karas covers the surgical options and the medical weight loss program with GLP-1 medication management, at the Lyndhurst or Westlake office, at no charge.
Or call 216.377.7257Free consultation
Free for new patients at both the Lyndhurst and Westlake offices.
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