Surgery for Weight Loss

Bariatric surgery, also called weight loss surgery, was designed to help people who are dangerously obese or overweight. Someone who has a body mass index, or bmi, of 25 or more is considered to be overweight. This can be accomplished by reducing the stomach size with the help of a medical device called gastric binding. It can also be done by removing a part of the stomach or by redirecting the small intestines to a small stomach pouch. This procedure is often called gastric bypass surgery. Physicians are also using a new technique referred to as liposuction to reduce the amount of weight in a patient.

Weight loss surgery can help people who have long term health problems associated with excessive weight issues. Diabetes type 2 is one such health problem that is commonly associated with obesity. It has also shown a significant improvement in many cardiovascular risk factors including those affecting the heart.

Gastric Bypass Surgery

When surgeons use a gastric bypass surgery to help with weight loss in patients they often have strict guidelines for diet and exercise to follow. This procedure is used for patients who have tried other ways to lose weight with no success. There are a couple different types of gastric bypasses done today that are used for weight loss. One is called Roux-en-Y. This is where the stomach is stapled to create a small pouch. A small passage is made to bypass a section of the small intestines that allows food to pass through it. The Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch is another procedure used in weight loss surgeries. The surgeon, in this procedure, will remove a large portion of the stomach and will replace it with a thin sleeve type of stomach. A small portion of the small intestines will remain connected to the stomach during this process.

Lap-Band Adjustable Gastric Banding, or LAGB, is used with success in many weight loss surgeries. This is where a physician will use an inflatable band to separate the stomach into two parts. The surgeon then makes a channel between the two pouches that helps restrict the amount of food that the patient can eat at one time. The lap-band procedure works slower than that of some other procedures and is known to reduce less weight also. This procedure can be adjusted by the physician if ever needed and has the least amount of complications, when compared to other weight loss surgeries.