Did all your other attempts at weight loss treatments fail? Are you ready to have surgery to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle successfully? Are you ready to change your life?
Then your option is to have sleeve Gastrectomy, gastric bypass, and other weight-loss operations, commonly known as bariatric surgery. It involves changes in the digestive system to help you lose weight. Bariatric surgery is suggested if diet and exercise are not successful, or if you have serious health problems because of your weight. Some procedures limit how much you can eat, and other methods to reduce the body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Some surgeries do both.
Bariatric surgery can offer many benefits, compared with all other forms of weight loss options and necessary procedures, which can cause serious risks and side effects. Besides, with bariatric surgery, you need to change your diet healthily and exercise regularly to ensure the long-term success of bariatric surgery.
This Blog, provided by Dr Venugopal Pareek, gives information about bariatric surgery and how it helps to weight loss.
Before that, let us know what obesity is!
What Is Obesity?
Obesity defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. The measure of your weight concerning your height is BMI. Obesity in grade 1 means BMI 30 to 35, obesity in class 2 BMI 35 to 40, and obesity in level 3 is a BMI of 40 or more. Grades 2 and 3, also known as severe obesity, are often difficult to treat with diet and exercise.
What Is Bariatric Surgery?
Bariatric surgery helps you lose weight by making changes to your digestive system. Some types of bariatric surgery reduce the size of your stomach, so you can eat and drink less at once and feel quite full. Other bariatric procedures also change your small intestine, the part of your body that absorbs calories and nutrients from food and drink.
Bariatric surgery can be an option if you are very obese and have not lost weight or maintain the weight you have lost using other methods such as life care or medication. Bariatric surgery can also be an option if you have serious health problems, such as type 2 diabetes or sleep apnea related to obesity. Bariatric surgery can help to reduce many diseases associated with obesity, primarily type 2 diabetes.
For those affected by severe obesity, bariatric surgery is a safe and effective treatment option. Besides, the same procedure has been recognized for its effects on metabolic or hormonal changes that play an essential role in hunger (desire to eat) and feeling full (desire to stop eating), as well as in improvement and resolution, conditions resulting from severe obesity can produce.
Bariatric surgery is a recognized approach to weight loss and many diseases due to severe obesity. Not everyone with severe obesity is suitable for bariatric surgery. There are specific criteria that must meet to become candidates for bariatric operations.
Why Is Bariatric Surgery Done?
Bariatric surgery is performed to help you lose weight and reduce the risk of potentially life-threatening health problems related to weight. Includes:
- Heart disease and stroke
- High blood pressure
- Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
- Sleep apnea
- Type 2 diabetes
Bariatric surgery is usually only done after you have tried to lose weight by improving diet and exercise.
Types of Bariatric Surgery:
The type of surgery that performed for someone to lose weight depends on several factors. You should discuss with a doctor which surgery is best for you.
What are the Surgical Options?
Surgeons usually use three types of operations:
- Laparoscopic adjustable gastric band
- Gastric sleeve surgery also called sleeve gastrectomy
- Gastric bypass
- Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch, less often.
Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band
In this type of surgery, the surgeon places a ring with an inflatable inner belt around the upper abdomen to form a small pouch. It will make you feel full after eating small amounts. In-band consists of round balloons filled with saline. The surgeon can adjust the size of the opening from the bag to the entire stomach by injecting or removing the solution through a small device called a port under the skin.
After surgery, you need to do some follow-up tests to adjust the size of the band opening. If the band causes problems or doesn’t contribute to weight loss, the surgeon can remove it.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of the gastric band for people with a BMI of 30 or more who also have at least one obesity-related health problems, such as heart disease or diabetes.
Advantages:
- The food that is held by the stomach is reduced
- Cause weight loss of around 40 – 50 percent
- Excludes gastric incisions or intestinal diversions
- It requires a shorter stay, usually less than 24 hours, with some centres registering patients on the same day as the operation
- Reversible and can be adjusted
- Having the lowest complications and postoperative mortality among approved bariatric procedures
- There is a risk of vitamin / mineral deficiency
Gastric Sleeve
During gastric surgery, also called a vertical sleeve surgery, the surgeon removes a large portion of your stomach, leaving only a banana-shaped part that gets covers with staples.
Like gastric surgery, this operation reduces the amount of food that can be stored in your stomach, making you feel full after eating some food. Removing parts of your stomach can also affect intestinal hormones or other factors, such as intestinal bacteria, which can affect appetite and metabolism. In this type of surgery, the abdomen is removed permanently, so the procedure cannot be reversed.
Advantages:
- It limits the amount of food the stomach can eat
- It induces rapid and significant weight loss, which, according to comparative studies, is similar to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.
- Including a relatively short hospital stay of about two days
- Causes beneficial changes in intestinal hormones that suppress hunger, reduce appetite and increase satiety
Gastric Bypass:
Gastric bypass surgery, also known as Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, consists of two parts. First, the surgeon stitches your stomach and makes a small bag at the top. Staples make your stomach much smaller, so you eat less and feel overwhelmed sooner.
Next, the surgeon cuts your small intestine and attaches the lower part directly to the small stomach pouch. The food then cuts off most of your stomach and the top of your small intestine, so that your body absorbs fewer calories. The surgeon connects the lower bypass to the lower intestine. This bypass is still attached to the central part of the stomach so that digestive fluid can move from the stomach and the first part of your small intestine to the bottom of your small intestine.
The bypass also changes intestinal hormones, intestinal bacteria, and other factors that can affect appetite and metabolism. Gastric bypass is difficult to reverse, although surgeons can do it if medically necessary.
Advantages
- Make significant long-term weight loss (60 to 80 percent weight loss)
- The amount of food that consumes is limited
- Creating beneficial changes in intestinal hormones that reduce appetite and increase satiety
- Support weight loss> 50%
Duodenal Switch
This operation also called a biliopancreatic diversion with a duodenal switch, is more complicated than others. The duodenal switch involves two separate procedures. The first is similar to gastric sleeve surgery. The second operation diverts food to cut a large portion of the small intestine. The surgeon places a bypass section in the last part of the small intestine so that digestive juices can mix with food.
This surgery allows losing more weight than the other three surgeries. However, this operation will likely cause surgical problems and a lack of vitamins, minerals, and protein in your body. For this reason, surgeons don’t do this surgery often.
Advantages:
- The results are more significant compared with other weight loss RYGB, LSG or AGB, i.e., 60-70% or more weight loss after five years
- Allow patients to eat almost regular food
- Reduce fat intake by 70 percent or more
- Causes beneficial changes in intestinal hormones to reduce appetite and increase satiety
- Itis most effective against diabetes compared to RYGB, LSG, and AGB
Is Bariatric Surgery Always Successful?
Studies show that many people who undergo bariatric surgery lose an average of 65 to 80 percent of their original weight, depending on the type of surgery they do. However, no method, including surgery, is safe for managing and maintaining weight loss. Some people who undergo bariatric surgery may not lose as much as they expect. Over time, some people regain some of their lost weight. The amount of weight a person can get back can vary. Factors that influence weight gain can be the level of obesity and the
type of surgery done.
Bariatric surgery does not replace healthy habits but can make it easier for you to eat fewer calories and be more active. Choosing healthy foods and drinks before and after surgery can help you lose weight and keep it off in the long run. Routine physical activity after surgery also helps maintain weight. To improve your health, you must commit to lifelong health habits and follow the advice of a doctor.
Conclusion:
Bariatric surgery is a safe and effective weight loss option. When used correctly and in combination with lifestyle therapy and routine medical visits, weight loss is three times higher than just lifestyle changes. Patients are always encouraged to maintain their lifestyle and eating habits related to weight loss.
It is important to note that there are risks associated with bariatric surgery and other surgical procedures. You must discuss this risk with a doctor and surgeon before deciding on treatment.
Dr Venu Gopal Pareek is an obesity surgeon who not only deals with the treatment of obesity but also with studies of causes and preventive measures to truly understand how long the weight loss can be successful. The doctor uses the latest technology and improvements to achieve the best possible patient experience. Knowing the care after the surgery with a doctor before surgery and continuing this with regular follow-up visits is the key to success and safe weight loss. Bariatric surgery is a lifetime commitment.
