Surgical Options for Bariatric Patients

Morbidly obese people, after many failed diets and pills often consider weight loss surgery as their last hope.
Being a bariatric surgeon, I often hear my patients talking about how hard it is to live with yourself and society when you have enormous overweight. I hear them saying that they cannot be themselves around people, they feel ashamed all the time.
After undergoing weight loss surgery, patients always say that it was a life changing moment for them.

If a someone’s BMI (Body Mass Index) is 40 or higher makes him/her a bariatric surgery candidate. A BMI of 35 is only accepted when the patient suffers from obesity related illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart conditions, respiratory disorders, infertility etc.

There are a few surgical options available today, developed by surgeons in order to help morbidly obese patients.

The gastric bypass surgery, the gastric sleeve or gastrectomy, the gastric imbrication procedure, the Lap-Band are surgeries that are performed today everywhere around the world.

In the procedure, we call gastric bypass the surgeon creates a small pouch in the upper part of the stomach by dividing it in two. This small pouch will act as the patient’s "new" stomach, when the lower part of the small intestine is attached to it; the large, remaining part of the initial stomach is bypassed. The gastrectomy involves the removal of a big part of the stomach, while the imbrication involves folding the stomach and stitching it to itself repeatedly. In the Lap-Band procedure, an adjustable band, filled with saline is placed around the upper part of the stomach restricting it and this way the amount of food intake is being controlled.

There are follow up procedures as well, for patients who successfully underwent weight loss surgery, but after a longer while, they regained most of the overweight.
One of these procedures is called the ROSE procedure (ROSE standing for Restorative Obesity Surgery, Endoluminal, in which the patient stomach with circumferential tissue folds is restored to the size it was after the initial bariatric surgery.
The second procedure is called Band Over Bypass, and it is similar to the Lap-Band, only here the adjustable band is given to a patient who already had gastric bypass surgery before.

With this kind of surgery, the transformation caused by the weight loss is dramatic and long term.
The procedure itself rarely takes more than an hour At Marina Del Rey Hospital these surgeries are performed with a laparoscope leaving only a few small incisions instead of an unwanted scar. The major complication risk is low and the recovery time after surgery is relatively short.

Marina Del Rey Hospital in Los Angeles is well prepared to help you through bariatric surgery and to guide you towards your new healthy lifestyle. Check out more details about weight loss options at L.A. Bariatrics.