Often exercise and diet alone fails to effectively treat those who suffer from severe cases of obesity. For many people, lifestyle changes may not be sufficient enough for them to restore their health. In those cases bariatric surgery is an ideal tool.

What it is

Bariatric surgical procedures are performed in order to help patients lose weight by making changes to their digestive system. This is achieved by either restricting the amount of food the stomach can hold, causing malabsorption of nutrients, or by a combination of both gastric restriction and malabsorption.

Types of bariatric procedures

There are various types of bariatric surgeries and they can be performed either by using and “open” approach (cutting open the abdomen) or laparoscopically (inserting small surgical instruments to the body through small incisions). Nowadays, most bariatric surgeries are laparoscopic because it’s the least invasive option, leads to fewer post-operative complications and allows for earlier hospital discharge.

The most common bariatric surgery procedures are: adjustable gastric band, gastric sleeve, gastric bypass and duodenal switch. Each surgery has its own advantages and disadvantages and the type of surgery that best suits each patient depends on many factors including BMI, eating habits, health problems related to obesity, and number of previous stomach surgeries.

Adjustable Gastric Band

The Adjustable Gastric Band, also known as Gastric band or simply Lap band, involves an inflatable band that is placed around the upper portion of the stomach, creating a small stomach pouch with an adjustable opening.

This band helps the patient satisfy their hunger after eating a small amount of food. The band is connected to an injection port placed under the skin from which the size of the stomach opening can be adjusted by filling the band with sterile saline solution.

Most prospect bariatric surgery patients will find that the major advantage of this procedure is that it’s reversible and adjustable, it does not involve any stomach cutting or re-routing of the intestines, and warrants a short hospital stay. Other things to consider is that it is the safest of the major bariatric procedures and has the lowest rate of early postoperative complications.

The disadvantages are that weight loss is slower and less drastic compared to other bariatric procedures, requires a foreign device to remain in the body and frequent follow-up visits to adjust band.

Gastric Sleeve

During a Gastric sleeve surgery, also known as Vertical sleeve gastrectomy, the surgeon removes about 80 percent of the stomach leaving only a tube-shaped section or “sleeve” that is closed with staples.

This procedure ultimately restricts the amount of food the stomach can hold, helping the patient feel satiated with less food and reducing their appetite. Cutting a portion of the stomach also diminishes the amount of Ghrelin (the hormone that produces hunger) present in the body.

The advantages of this procedure are that greater weight loss is achieved than with the Gastric band, no intestinal re-routing is involved, allows the stomach to function normally so most food items can be consumed in moderation and it eliminates the part of the stomach that produces the hormone that stimulates hunger.

The disadvantages are that it’s an irreversible procedure, there is greater change of vitamin shortage and higher rate of surgery-related issues than the Gastric band.

Gastric Bypass

Gastric bypass surgery, or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, is divided into two stages. During the first stage, the surgeon divides the stomach into a small upper section and large bottom section using staples. The top pouch will then function as the new stomach where the food will be stored.

The second stage involves bypassing a part of the small intestine, the surgeon cuts the small intestine and attaches the lower part of it directly to the small stomach pouch. By doing so, food bypasses most of the stomach and the upper part of the small intestine so the body absorbs fewer calories.

The advantages include: greater weight loss than the Lap band (70 percent excess weight loss or greater, at 5 year follow up), allows patients to eventually eat near “normal” meals, is the most effective against diabetes compared to other procedures.

Some disadvantages are: It is difficult to reverse, higher chance of vitamin shortage than Gastric band or Gastric sleeve, higher chance of surgery-related problems than Gastric band.

Who is a candidate?

If your BMI is of 40 or more and your health has not improved significantly after doing diet and exercise, and if you suffer from obesity related issues such as: type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and heart disease you should consider bariatric surgery.

At Bariatric Surgery Tijuana they are dedicated to providing the highest quality of surgical weight loss management in a caring and compassionate setting.