Things to know about stomach surgery
Most people who have weight problems think of stomach surgery as an easy way out, but there are a lot more things to know about it than you might think. Surgery is never an easy option, especially when you are planning on having a procedure that changes so many things about your lifestyle. In this article I will try to present the stomach surgery and several aspects of it so that you will have a better picture of everything that it means.
You should know that stomach surgery is also known as gastric bypass and the point is to make the stomach smaller and so to restrict the food that can be eaten. Also during the surgery bypasses are constructed to cause malabsorption. This means that the ability of absorbing the nutrients that the food has will be decreased.
As far as I know there are two major types of gastric bypass. The first one is the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, abbreviated as RGB. This procedure is the most widespread stomach surgery in the States and it consists of a pouch that is created by stapling a part of the stomach together, but another possibility is to create a vertical banding.
This way the amount of food that can be eaten will be limited. The next thing that the surgeon does is that he or she creates a Y-shaped section where the small intestine is attached to the pouch and so the food will be able to bypass the duodenum and also the first part of the jejunum. This way the calorie and nutrient absorption will be limited. In some cases the procedure can be done with the help of a laparoscope. In this case small incisions are made and the recovery time is a lot shorter.
The second type of stomach surgery is the extensive gastric bypass. This surgery is more complicated than the first one because in this case the lower part of the stomach will be removed.
The small pouch that remains will be connected to the end of the small intestine and so the food will be able to bypass the duodenum and the jejunum. Although this is a very efficient way to lose weight it is very rarely used because it may cause nutritional deficiencies.
All the gastric bypass procedures end with malabsorption and they restrict the food intake. This helps people to lose weight and according to statistics the people that get such a surgery lose about two thirds of their initial weight within two years.
You should also know that there are some risks that you take if you agree to have such a procedure. The risks include pouch stretching (the stomach might get back to its initial size), band erosion (the band that closes a part of the stomach disappears over time), breakdown of staple lines (results in reversing the procedure), leakage of the stomach contents into the abdomen and nutritional deficiencies.
Now you know a lot more about stomach surgery to make your decision.
You should know that stomach surgery is also known as gastric bypass and the point is to make the stomach smaller and so to restrict the food that can be eaten. Also during the surgery bypasses are constructed to cause malabsorption. This means that the ability of absorbing the nutrients that the food has will be decreased.
As far as I know there are two major types of gastric bypass. The first one is the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, abbreviated as RGB. This procedure is the most widespread stomach surgery in the States and it consists of a pouch that is created by stapling a part of the stomach together, but another possibility is to create a vertical banding.
This way the amount of food that can be eaten will be limited. The next thing that the surgeon does is that he or she creates a Y-shaped section where the small intestine is attached to the pouch and so the food will be able to bypass the duodenum and also the first part of the jejunum. This way the calorie and nutrient absorption will be limited. In some cases the procedure can be done with the help of a laparoscope. In this case small incisions are made and the recovery time is a lot shorter.
The second type of stomach surgery is the extensive gastric bypass. This surgery is more complicated than the first one because in this case the lower part of the stomach will be removed.
The small pouch that remains will be connected to the end of the small intestine and so the food will be able to bypass the duodenum and the jejunum. Although this is a very efficient way to lose weight it is very rarely used because it may cause nutritional deficiencies.
All the gastric bypass procedures end with malabsorption and they restrict the food intake. This helps people to lose weight and according to statistics the people that get such a surgery lose about two thirds of their initial weight within two years.
You should also know that there are some risks that you take if you agree to have such a procedure. The risks include pouch stretching (the stomach might get back to its initial size), band erosion (the band that closes a part of the stomach disappears over time), breakdown of staple lines (results in reversing the procedure), leakage of the stomach contents into the abdomen and nutritional deficiencies.
Now you know a lot more about stomach surgery to make your decision.
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