The first step
Welcome to our video series about weight loss surgery. This informative series, moderated by Armand Dorian, MD, of Keck Medicine of USC, was produced as a resource for anyone considering bariatric surgery as an option to achieve long-term weight loss.
Kamran Samakar, MD, and Kulmeet Sandhu, MD, both assistant professors of clinical surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and bariatric surgeons at Keck Medicine of USC and USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, describe the process of determining whether or not weight loss surgery is an option for prospective patients. They also address common concerns related to bariatric procedures. Michelle Nguyen, RD, CSOWM, an outpatient dietitian who counsels bariatric surgery patients before and after their surgeries, discusses how dietary changes before and after surgery factor into overall weight loss success. Angela Peachy-Larson, BSNS, CPHRM, APPRC, director of risk management at Keck Medicine of USC and a weight loss surgery patient, candidly describes her journey to weight loss and her experiences before and after having a sleeve gastrectomy.

Kamran Samakar, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery

Kulmeet Sandhu, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery
“The Weight Loss Surgery Program at USC is unlike any other. Each one of our bariatric surgeons, Drs. Sandhu, Samakar, Dobrowolsky and myself, are proud to boast the some of the best outcomes in the nation. The program is personalized and every patient becomes the center of preoccupation before and after.
We treat everyone as part of our family and when a patient comes to us ready for change, together, we make it happen.”
— Namir Katkhouda, MD
Professor of Surgery and Director, USC Bariatric Program