Bariatric Surgery – How Does Weight Loss Surgery Work? – Part I
Bariatric surgery is fast garnering immense acceptance globally as a feasible means of having dramatic weight reduction. Following surgery, such individuals have been noted to be able to majorly maintain their preliminary weight loss for as long as a decade following the surgery.
The highly beneficial aspect of opting for bariatric surgery is that it helps in swift resolution in cases of Type 2 Diabetes following surgery that could be a major windfall for innumerable obese diabetics worldwide that are ailing from this lethal disease. Not just diabetes, bariatric surgery additionally leads to improvement in other co-morbidities such as hypertension, dyslipidaemia, sleep apnea, sterility, joint problems and depressive tendencies to site a few.
The key decisive factors in the choice of patients for Bariatric Surgery include:
- Those having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 37 or above.
- Those with BMI lying between 32 to 37 alongside health issues such as Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension, raised cholesterol levels, sterility, gall stones, sleep apnoea and others problems.
The general types of Bariatric Surgery include:
- Restrictive Surgery – The two wholly restrictive forms of weight loss surgery are the widely popular ‘Adjustable Gastric Banding’ and the ‘Sleeve Gastrectomy’ both of which leave lesser room inside the stomach for food after its ingestion.
Adjustable Gastric Banding - During this procedure, an inflatable silicon-based band is introduced around the upper portion of the stomach which leads to restriction in the amount of food ingestion and leads to early satisfaction and a sense of fullness. This procedure causes nearly 50% excess weight reduction in the long term. The duo accepted gastric banding devices and methods that have approval in the U.S. are the LAP-BAND and the Realize band.
Sleeve Gastrectomy – Also dubbed ‘stomach stapling’, in this procedure nearly two-thirds of the stomach is surgically removed employing staplers. This lowers the intake of food and additionally leads to decrease or loss in appetite. This procedure leads to nearly 70% excess weight loss in the long term.
- Malabsorptive Surgery - This includes Gastric Bypass and Billiopancreatic Bypass.
Gastric Bypass surgery – also employs the technique of stomach stapling that leads to the formation of a small pouch. The differentiating factor in gastric bypass and gastric banding is that the food does not travel via the pouch to be further assimilated in the larger section of the stomach; rather it drains out directly in the small intestines.
To make it workable, the small intestines need to be detached. The surgeon would connect one end of it to the aperture in the newly created stomach pouch. The part of the intestines still joined to the stomach’s innate aperture is known as the duodenum where juices from pancreas flow inwards to mingle with the food, thus aiding in further assimilation of food that leaves the stomach.
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