Being overweight predisposes you to chronic health conditions that can shorten your lifespan. Bariatric, also known as metabolic surgery, targets your weight, specifically how you break down food to treat obesity. Specialists at Valhalla Advanced Surgeons perform bariatric surgery to modify the stomach and intestines to achieve weight loss results. Modern medicine has refined metabolic and bariatric surgery by introducing minimally invasive techniques to guarantee better treatment experiences involving reduced pain, complications, and hospital stays. There are different procedures under bariatric surgery. Your bariatric surgeon will review your symptoms and medical history to recognize which surgery is best for you.
The following are the different types of bariatric surgery techniques:
Sleeve Gastrectomy
The Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy involves reducing the size of the stomach to the shape of a banana. Your doctor will eliminate various stomach organs to ensure they carry less food and liquid. This technique lessens the amount of food your stomach consumes. This procedure also targets your metabolism. You will experience decreased hunger and increased fullness, guaranteeing the maintenance of a healthy weight and blood sugar levels.
Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass
Your surgeon will perform a gastric bypass via a laparoscopic approach. Your doctor will divide your stomach into two, a smaller top portion and a larger bottom portion. During the operation, your surgeon will also cut the small intestine and connect part directly to the smaller top portion of your stomach, allowing less food ingestion. This altered food course causes significant metabolic effects, including decreased hunger and increased fullness, thus allowing improvement of adult-onset diabetes even before any weight loss occurs. You may also notice reduced reflux (heartburn). Your doctor may recommend making appropriate food choices and avoiding tobacco products to enable recovery.
Adjustable Gastric Band
Your surgeon will insert a ring that has an inflatable inner band in the upper part of your stomach to create a small pouch. A gastric band causes similar effects as a gastric sleeve and bypass surgery: you will feel full faster. There is a circular balloon containing saline solution inside the inner band. Adjusting the inner band can resize the opening from the pouch to the rest of your stomach. Your doctor must inject or remove the saline solution using a port under your skin. However, size adjustments of the band opening require you to attend follow-up visits.
Biliopancreatic Diversion with Duodenal Switch
The first part of this surgery is similar to sleep gastrectomy. Your doctor will then proceed to join the end portion of the intestine to the duodenum near the stomach bypassing a large part of the intestine. This procedure will reduce the amount of food you can eat and the nutrients your body absorbs. Some of the risks associated with this surgery are malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies.
Select an accredited surgery center with support staff and an education program to help prepare you for before, during, and life after bariatric surgery. For example, your primary care provider will give you more instructions about your diet depending on the type of surgery you had. Contact Advanced Surgeons to develop an appropriate bariatric surgery approach to enhance your weight loss results.
