Gastric Bypass Surgery

Gastric bypass surgery is a form of bariatric surgery that aids weight loss in morbidly obese patients. Extreme obesity comes with a price, as it can lead to severe health conditions in the form of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, high cholesterol levels, and many other ailments that can diminish longevity. In some cases, obesity can also render a patient unfit to indulge in day-to-day activities, thereby adversely affecting his or her mobility.

Gastric bypass surgery is a bariatric surgery that is known to provide good results for morbidly obese patients (with BMI of 40 kg/m2 or more), as they can lose a considerable amount of excess weight rapidly and can also sustain it by bringing about certain changes in their lifestyle.

Patients are traveling to leading medical tourism destinations such as Mexico, India, Costa Rica and Belgium, to avail of the value-for-money treatments offered by healthcare centers in these countries. Intended patients in the U.S. can consider traveling to Las Vegas for gastric bypass surgery as this can give them the opportunity to combine vacationing with losing weight.

Procedure and Working of Gastric Bypass Surgery

All bariatric surgeries result in weight loss by reducing the size of the stomach. Unlike other weight loss surgeries which lead to reduction of either the eating capacity of patients or the amount of calories absorbed by the body, gastric bypass surgery does both. This is possible since it is both a restrictive and malabsorptive weight loss surgery.

The gastric bypass procedure involves the following steps:

• The stomach is divided into two parts, upper and lower, using surgical staples. The upper part is quite small as compared to the lower part.
• Division of the stomach results in formation of a small pouch in the upper part of the stomach. The pouch is 65 to 80 percent smaller than the actual size of the stomach and the food consumed by the patient is stored in this pouch, thereby largely limiting the eating capacity of the patient.
• The stomach is connected to small intestine through its upper part called duodenum. However, during the surgery, the pouch created in the upper part of the stomach is connected directly to the middle part of small intestine called jejunum, thereby bypassing the lower part of the stomach and upper part of the small intestine. This greatly reduces the amount of calories absorbed from the food consumed by the patient.
• Although the lower part of the stomach is by-passed, it continues to produce the digestive juices that help in digestion. A connection is also established between the lower part of stomach and jejunum, in order to facilitate digestion of food when it passes through it.

Recommendations

Gastric bypass surgery is not suitable for all obese patients. Patients who are above eighteen years of age and have BMI of 40 or above are good candidates for this obesity surgery. Patients within the BMI range of 35-40 can also consider this procedure, if they suffer from any one of the obesity related diseases like diabetes and hypertension. As in the case of any other weight loss surgery, candidates considering stomach bypass must have tried losing weight through exercising and diet control.

Benefits of Gastric Bypass Surgery

• Right after the surgery, patients start losing weight rapidly, and weight loss continues for 18 to 24 months after the surgery.
• Apart from aiding weight loss, this bariatric surgery can also provide a solution to problems such as Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
• With reduced weight, patients feel more active and can indulge in day-to day activities with renewed vigor.

Risks Associated With Gastric Bypass Surgery

• Formation of blood clots, which may travel to lungs and cause breathing problems.
• Injuries to stomach and small intestine during the surgery.
• Infection in the related organs such as kidneys and bladder.
• Leakage in the stomach where surgical staples are used.
• Rare possibility of the patient suffering a heart attack during the surgery.

Responsibilities of the Patient

Success of the surgery is not entirely dependent on the procedure alone. Patients need to accommodate certain permanent changes in their lifestyle and eating habits to shed adequate amount of weight and to avoid complications.

Changes that patients need to incorporate in their lifestyles include following an exercise program suitable to them on a regular basis, eating healthy food and abiding by the doctors’ instructions religiously. Lack of commitment on part of the patient to switch to a healthy lifestyle, may result in total failure of the gastric bypass surgery.

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