weight loss

Weight Loss Surgery

Weight loss surgery is becoming more popular. People are eating more and getting more obese. Weight loss surgeries are becoming more frequent. The procedures have proven results. Many people are faced with serious health issues. Weight loss surgeries are covered for most insurance companies. One of the most popular is the Lap-Band surgery. It is less evasive from gastric bypass and the recovery is much faster. While weight loss is slower than gastric bypass, it is not as dangerous. As time evolves, there will be other options for weight loss surgeries.

Bariatric Surgery

Gastric Bypass Surgery is a group of similar operative procedures used to treat morbid obesity, a condition which arises from severe accumulation of excess weight as fatty tissue, and the resultant health problems (which occur. Bariatric surgery is the surgical treatment of morbid obesity, and includes the gastric bypass procedures as one of several classes of operations. A gastric bypass consists of a division of the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much larger, lower "remnant" pouch, accompanied by re-arrangement of the small intestines to permit both pouches to remain connected to the intestines. The manner in which the intestines are reconnected gives rise to several variations of the procedure. The operation leads to a marked reduction in the functional volume of the stomach, accompanied by an altered physiological and psychological response to food. Weight loss is typically dramatic, and co-morbidities are markedly reduced. The gastric bypass reduces the size of the stomach by well over 90%. A normal stomach can stretch, sometimes to over 1000 ml, while the pouch of the gastric bypass may be 15 ml in size. The Gastric Bypass pouch is usually formed from the part of the stomach which is least susceptible to stretching. That, and its small original size, prevents any significant long-term change in pouch volume. What does change, over time, is the size of the connection between stomach and bowel, and the ability of the small bowel to hold a greater volume of food. Over time, the functional capacity of the pouch increases; by that time, weight loss has occurred, and the increased capacity serves to allow maintenance of a lower body weight. When the patient ingests just a small amount of food, the first response is stretching of the wall of the stomach pouch stimulates nerves which tell the brain that the stomach is full. The patient feels a sensation of fullness, as if they had just eaten a large meal - but with just a thumbful of food. Most people do not stop eating, simply in response to a feeling of fullness, but the patient rapidly learns that subsequent bites must be eaten very slowly and carefully, to avoid increasing discomfort, or even vomiting. To gain the maximum benefit from this physiology, it is important that the patient eat only at mealtime, 2 to 3 meals daily, and avoid snacks and grazing between meals, which can effectively "bypass the bypass". This requires a change in eating behavior, and alteration of long-acquired habits for finding food. The Gastric Bypass is a powerful tool for enabling change in eating behavior to a healthy form. In almost every case where weight gain occurs late after surgery, capacity for a meal has not greatly increased. The real cause of regaining weight is eating between meals, usually high-caloric snack foods. There is no known operation which can completely counteract the adverse effects of destructive eating behavior.

Adjustable Gastric Banding or 'Lap-Banding' as it is commonly known, is probably the simplest and safest of all the weight loss surgery techniques commonly performed today. This procedure is considered less invasive and more straight forward to perform and recover from than the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass or Duodenal Switch surgery and as a consequence has a far lower post - surgical complication rate. This procedure should always be performed by an expert Upper Gastro Intestinal Surgeon, who will skillfully position and sew an adjustable elastomer band around the stomach, which will sit snugly around the entrance of the stomach, restricting a patients capacity to take on board large volume of food or fluid. The elastomer band is made tighter or looser throughout a patients treatment programme to suit each patients individual weight loss needs. The band is adjusted by tightening or loosening the fit of the band around the stomach by inserting or withdrawing saline solution. The saline is introduced or withdrawn via a small tube and port, which is connected to the band and can be neatly secured just below the surface of the abdominal skin. When an adjustable band is fit in a secure position around the entrance of the stomach and inflated with saline, the band tightens and slows down the passage of food through the band and into the stomach. Patients with a Lap-Band in place experience a full feeling after only a small volume of food in comparison to their appetite prior to Lap Band surgery. You may be a good candidate for Adjustable Gastric Banding if you are a reasonably well disciplined and committed weight loss surgery patient, willing to go through a slightly slower and more steady and progressive weight loss experience than experienced by Roux- en-Y candidates. It should also be noted that because Adjustable Gastric Banding patients don't experience the same 'dumping syndrome' experienced by many Roux-en-Y surgery candidates with high sugar consumption that a minority of undisciplined Lap- Banding patients do sabotaging their weight loss program by consuming high-calorie liquids such as milkshakes, colas etc. If you undergo Adjustable Gastric Banding surgery you must be committed to having the balloon on the band inflated two or three times a year as this adjusts the continued restriction and effectiveness of the Lap-Band and maintains a patients individual weight loss potential in the long term. These adjustments are called 'in-fills' and are performed painlessly and speedily in an out patient clinic by a specialist technician, nurse or surgeon