How to Choose a Type of Weight Loss Surgery

There are now many types of weight loss surgery available. Many people are only aware of gatric bypass surgery. While it has its place there are more options open to you. This article is not an effort to tell you which surgery is right for you. It is meant to inform you of some of the various surgeries being done. Always consult your physician on health matters.

Gastric bypass surgery has been around the longest of all the surgeries. There are several variations on this procedure but they are all similar. It involves making a small pouch out of the top part of the stomach and rerouting the intestines up to meet that pouch. This bypasses the main part of the stomach and part of the intestines. This surgery often results in intolerance of fats and sweets which is known as dumping syndrome. There is also a danger of deficiencies caused by the intestines that are left not being able to absorb enough vitamins and minerals.

The lap band involves laproscopic surgery. An adjustable lapband is placed around the top part of the stomach. This reduces the amount that can be eaten at one time. The patient must be near a doctor who can do adjustments on the band. There is a danger of slippage or erosion. This surgery is reversable, the band can be removed.

Vertical sleeve gastrectomy is becoming very popular. It is the first half of an older procedure called the Duodenal Switch. In vsg the stomach is reduced in size to be the shape of a long tube. The original exit from the stomach is left intact. This is strictly a restrictive procedure. The intestines are not rerouted so there is no danger of absorbtion problems. The other part of the stomach is removed so this surgery is not reversible.

Duodenal switch has two steps. As I said before, the first part of the surgery is the gastric sleeve. The second part involves rerouting of the intestines. For very morbidly obese patients the surgery is sometimes done in two separate surgeries. The first surgery is to reduce the size of the stomach. The patient then goes on to lose enough weight to make it safe to do the second half. The success these patients have in losing weight after the half of the surgery prompted doctors to begin doing only that part for patients who have less weight to lose.