Bariatric Surgery Options

While all weight-loss surgeries aim to help the patient lose weight, there are different surgical approaches, including restrictive (which limits the amount of food a person can hold in her stomach), malabsorptive (which affects how a person absorbs calories and nutrients) and combination (which utilizes some aspects of both). The selection of the right surgical approach for you often depends on a number of factors, such as age, weight and results desired.

Permanent Versus Reversible

• Bariatric surgery can be either performed in a way that is reversible, such as through adjustable gastric banding surgery, which is a restrictive procedure that places an adjustable band around the stomach. This restricts the amount of food that a person can eat in one sitting. If necessary, the gastric band can be removed or even adjusted to increase in size, which may be advantageous should a person not be able to adjust to the dietary requirements necessary to have a gastric band.

  By contrast, other procedures, such as a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, which is both restrictive and malabsorptive and involves separating the upper portion of the stomach from the lower and then reconnecting the new, smaller stomach to the small intestine. This procedure is irreversible and requires a significant commitment to following a restrictive diet for the rest of the patient's life.

Weight-Loss Results Desired

• In addition to considerations of how reversible the procedure is, another consideration when choosing a bariatric surgery is surgical results desired. Roux-en-Y surgery is a good option if a patient is hoping to lose weight quickly or as much as 73 percent excess body weight after the first year, according to St. Luke's Health System.

  If you do not have as much weight to lose or can lose weight more slowly, gastric band surgery involves losing 33 percent excess body weight after one year, according to St. Luke's Health System.

  For patients who are severely obese, such as 200 to 300 pounds overweight, the duodenal switch procedure is a combination operation that removes the stomach, making it shaped like a tube and smaller as well as dividing the small intestine. This action results in the decreased absorption of calories, fats and carbohydrates, which allows a patient to lose weight more quickly. According to St. Luke's Health System, this type of weight loss is on par with Roux-en-Y surgery.

Chronic Conditions

• If a patient has co-morbid conditions related to excess weight, such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure or sleep apnea, the Roux-en-Y procedure is a patient's best option for reducing these symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic. Therefore, if a patient has a condition that is leading to health complications, choosing Roux-en-Y may be her best best.

Dietary Restrictions

• All bariatric surgeries require some type of dietary restrictions, be it avoiding foods high in fat or eating smaller amounts of food. For example, Roux-en-Y surgery involves consuming very small amounts of food at a time as well as taking vitamin and calcium supplements for the rest of a patient's life. Roux-en-Y patients also should avoid foods high in fat and carbohydrates.

  Much like gastric bypass, gastric banding patients must eat very small meals and not drink liquids while eating solid foods. Gastric banding patients also may require additional adjustments to the band as well as taking supplementation to make up for vitamin deficiencies that can occur.

  In comparison, a duodenal switch procedure does not require dietary restrictions as to what a person can eat, but does require a person eat less.