Stomach Surgery

Bariatric surgery is becoming more widely accepted as a viable treatment for obesity. Once considered a radical treatment and reserved for only the most severe cases of morbid obesity, weight loss surgery has become much more common. Over recent years, the medical community has begun to treat obesity as a chronic disease, as evidence has mounted to show that it can have major complications, drastically impacting the overall health of those affected. For many patients, the severe health effects of obesity can be far more dangerous than any gastric bypass surgery risks.

Gastric bypass surgery is performed to alter the digestive system, making weight loss easier to accomplish and maintain. The capacity of the stomach is reduced, lessening the amount of food ingested by the patient, and part of the small intestine is bypassed, making the path that food travels through the digestive system shorter. This alteration greatly reduces the amount of calories that are absorbed by the body, leading to significant weight loss in the vast majority of gastric bypass surgery patients, many of whom have tried many other weight loss options without success.

Immediate gastric bypass surgery risks include those common to any surgical procedure, such as infection at the incision site and blood clots. These risks are reduced in patients that are able to be treated with laparoscopic surgery, rather than the more invasive open procedure. Over the long term, some gastric bypass patients can develop nutritional deficiencies, nausea and vomiting after meals, gallstones, ulcers, and hernias.

In many patients that suffer with obesity, the complications of this condition far outweigh gastric bypass surgery risks. Obesity can cause hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes, as well as taking a toll on the weight bearing joints, causing osteoarthritis. Many of these severe complications can be alleviated with weight loss. Studies show that morbidly obese patients who are treated with Bariatric surgery have a substantially lowered risk of mortality than those that continue to carry those extra pounds.

As Bariatric surgery has become more prominent in weight loss treatment, the benefits of this procedure have been clearly shown to surpass gastric bypass surgery risks in many patients who suffer the effects of morbid obesity. Most patients who undergo weight loss surgery lose a substantial amount of weight after the procedure, and are much more likely to maintain a healthy body weight into the future, making it one of the most effective treatments available for severe obesity.

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