Obesity surgery

Obesity surgery or bariatric surgery is an operation on the stomach and /or intestines to decrease the amount of food that can be eaten at one time. You may be able to have the obesity surgery if:

• You have a body mass index of 40 or more or have a BMI of 35 to 39.9 with serious medical conditions such as high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, sleep apnea or type 2 diabetes.
• You have to have made an effort to lose weight before, for example by dieting and exercise or diet pills and you did not lose weight.
• You are unable to live a normal life and take care of yourself. Maybe you have difficulty walking or bathing yourself and need a lot of help.
• You really want to lose weight and will try very hard to stick to the diets and exercises that your doctor will give you and to commit to make life long changes.

There are many types of weight loss surgeries; one kind is restrictive surgery which uses bands or staples to stop you taking in too much food. The bands or staples are placed near the top of the stomach to make a little pouch section that is often called a stomach pouch, and can hold about a half a cup to one cup of food. A small hole, about the size of a pencil eraser, is left at the bottom of the stomach pouch so food stays in the pouch longer and so you don’t feel as hungry so soon.

A surgery called combined restrictive and malabsorptive surgery is when you use both the restrictive surgery and a surgery where the surgeon connects the stomach to a lower segment of the small intestine. This decreases the amount of food that is digested or absorbed.

Weight loss surgery is very effective and usually the patient loses a lot of weight very quickly, usually for 18-24 months. Sometimes after this time some people start to gain some weight back but usually not all of it.

Surgery makes most diseases related to obesity much better. It’s very effective in lowering blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol.

Most people who have had the surgery have a much better quality of life because they can do many things they were not able to before and they have more energy and their self-esteem is very much improved.

As with any surgery there are many risks. 10 percent to 20 percent of patients who have weight-loss operations need more surgery because of complications from the surgery.(picture to the left- a stomach. Copyright The Big Problem 2008)

One of the big problems is the development of gallstones. More than one-third of patients who have gastric surgery develop gallstones. When you lose a lot of weight quickly you are much more likely to get gall stones. Taking bile salts for the first 6 months after surgery helps to prevent them.

Almost 30 percent of patients who have weight-loss surgery get diseases due to lack of certain nutrients.  Some develop anemia, osteoporosis and metabolic bone disease.  It’s very important to take the vitamin and minerals that you doctor gives you.