Stomach Surgery

Vertical Gastrectomy

What You Always Wanted To Know About Vertical Gastrectomy

People who are excessively overweight are faced with very few choices of weight loss. At the same time they are the people who need it most. Especially meant for these types of patients there is a particular surgery known as vertical gastrectomy.

What Is Vertical Gastrectomy?

The vertical gastrectomy is a weight loss specific surgery where a major part of the stomach is removed with the intention of restricting the amount of food the patient may eat. The aim of this surgery is to have the patient loose weight by reducing the food intake. The vertical gastrectomy does not need an intestinal bypass and hence, most of the risks associated with this type of intervention are avoided.

Each patient should carefully weigh the pros and cons before accepting to undergo the surgery because like everything else, this intervention too has its own advantages and disadvantages.

People who exceed BMI (Body Mass Index) 60 should normally be careful of what type of weight loss surgeries they submit to. It is often found that laparoscopic duodenal switch or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is not suited for such patients because of excessive obesity. However, with vertical gastrectomy the risk is much lower comparatively and the weight loss results would be better.

The Good News About Vertical Gastrectomy

The vertical gastrectomy works wonders on patients who are grossly overweight and the weight loss results post-surgery are thrilling. In many cases it has been observed that the patient could loose anything between 100-200 pounds which is a remarkable achievement. Even though for the level of obesity of these patients this weight loss is minimal the vertical gastrectomy at least helps these patients qualify for more drastic medical interventions such as the duodenal switch and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, which would further reduce their weight to bring them closer to normalcy.

This type of surgery is excellent news for people who are too obese to qualify for any type of surgical intervention for weight loss. The fact that there are very few complications to watch out for is a very critical factor for the obese patients for whom a slight complication can snowball into a serious and life-threatening health problem. Though the weight loss is relatively lesser here, the vertical gastrectomy is the least risky, rather effective and fast to heal.

The over obese patients actually have very little choice from their health position and vertical gastrectomy is indeed a boon for them because only through this intervention they are able to qualify for other more potent weight-loss medical interventions.

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