Weight Los and Weight Loss Surgery

An Alternate Treatment for Weight loss

With numerous modes of alternative treatments, equally variant diets and exercise programs emerging today, another form of weight loss is surgery. People, who are excessively fat and do not benefit from any diet, exercise or other form or weight loss, resort to surgery as their last hope.

The procedure of bariatics surgery for morbid obesity has proven to be one of the effective measures for reducing weight.

According to a quote, “There is sufficient evidence to conclude that surgery improves health outcomes for patients with morbid obesity as compared to non-surgical treatment.”

This quote more than convincingly insists on bariatic surgery as a mode of reducing weight.

Weight loss surgery

Weight loss surgery is major surgery in one’s life. Morbid obesity if not controlled can lead to a shorter life and many life threatening problems for health known as co-morbidities. Studies show that obesity puts one on the risk of an early death as compared to a non-obese person. However, there is a chance for enjoying good health and a longer life with proper treatment. A clinical study shows that gastric bypass surgery improves life expectancy in patients by 89 percent.

Studies show that bariatric surgery can effectively improve and resolve many weight-related health conditions. It was found that 22,000 bariatric surgery patients showed improvement in or complete resolution of conditions including type II diabetes, hypertension, and sleep apnea.

Types of weight loss surgery

Gastric Restrictive Procedure – Vertical Banded Gastroplasty (VBG)

As the name reveals, Vertical Banded Gastroplasty (VBG) is a purely restrictive procedure. In this method, a smaller stomach is created by vertically stapling the upper part of the stomach near the esophagus. It is vertically stapled for about 2-1/2 inches or 6 cm to create a smaller stomach pouch.

Also, the opening from this pouch is restricted by a band or a ring which slows the emptying of the food from the stomach, in turn gives a feeling of having a full stomach.

Malabsorptive Procedures - Biliopancreatic Diversion

The goal of this procedure is to restrict the amount of food ingested by the patient and alter the normal digestive process on a greater scale. With the help of surgery, the anatomy of the small intestine is change to divert the bile and pancreatic juices so the indigested food is closer to the middle or end of small intestine.  With this, the absorption of nutrients and calories is also reduced which leads to feeling of fullness and gives satisfaction.

Biliopancreatic Diversion (BPD)

This type of weight loss surgery removes approximately ¾ of the stomach to restrict both the intake of the food and acid output. This leaves enough upper stomach which can maintain proper nutrition. Then the small intestine is divided, with one end attached to the stomach pouch to create an alimentary limb, through which all the food passes but is not absorbed. The bile and the pancreatic juices move through the biliopancreatic limb which is connected to the side of the intestine close to the end. With this, the digestive juices can be supplied in the intestine called the common limb which is made long or short to regulate the amount of proteins, fats and fat soluble vitamins absorbed.

Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding

In this procedure, a band is placed around the upper most part of the stomach with the surgery. This band divides the stomach into two portions, a smaller and a relatively larger portion. Due to restricted food intake, the patients feel full sooner than other people. In this case, the digestive process occurs normally.

There are various other types of weight loss surgeries which help the obese people over come their excessive fatness and weight gain and live a better and healthy life.