Information on Gastric Bypass Surgery

Gastric bypass surgery is the most popular weight loss surgery in the United States. The main objective of gastric bypass surgery, as a bariatric (weight loss) procedure, is to alter the structure of your digestive system by restricting the amount of food that you can consume and digest. The reason that gastric bypass surgery is so popular is because it minimizes the health risks associated with being overweight and obese. It also effectively works as a way to lose weight and keep it off.

Function

• With gastric bypass surgery, the surgeon makes a pouch above the stomach and then adds a bypass around the area of the stomach and the small intestine. Then, the stomach is stapled from the top, which closes it off from the rest of the stomach. This creates a pouch that is small (probably walnut sized) and only is capable of carrying approximately an ounce of food at a time. After this, the small intestine is cut and part of it is directly attached to the new pouch.

Significance

• The gastric bypass surgery procedure works as this new connection between the small intestine and the pouch redirects the food, making it pass over most of the stomach and first part of the small intestine, called the duodenum. Instead, food goes straight into the second part of the small intestine, called the jejunum. This restricts the ability to absorb calories.

Considerations

• After gastric bypass surgery is completed, patients are generally advised against eating for between 1 and 3 days. This is necessary in order to give the stomach some time to heal and recuperate from the surgical stresses. Then, it is important for the patient to follow a specific diet for about 3 months, starting off with liquids only, then moving on to soft foods and finally being able to eat "regular" foods again.

Side Effects

• For the first few months after undergoing gastric bypass surgery, a lot of patients will experience some severe changes and side effects. Some of these possible side effects could include hair loss, thinning hair, fatigue (similar to flu-like fatigue), feelings of constant coldness, body aches, dry skin and mood changes.

Benefits

• There are a lot of great health benefits as well as self esteem benefits that can come out of having gastric bypass surgery. Some of these benefits include improving health conditions including high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, and gastroesphogeal reflux disease (GERD). Also, it is expected that most bypass patients lose between 50 and 60 percent of their initial body weight within the first two years after undergoing the surgery.