Obesity
Weight-loss surgery commonly referred to as bariatric surgery or metabolic surgery is a great way to reduce the risks of medical problems associated with obesity such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease.
It’s the most effective way of losing weight and maintaining weight loss long term compared to medication or diet and exercise. Bariatric surgery involves surgically reducing the size of your stomach with or without altering small bowel anatomy so the amount of food your body can hold is reduced thus limiting calorie intake as well as bringing about various changes to the hormone/ chemical levels released by the gut and the way it interacts with different parts of your body such as pancreas and brain. Weight loss is often quite rapid after surgery but then does begin to slow down after 6-9 months.
Sleeve Gastrectomy
A Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is the most common bariatric operation currently performed worldwide including Australia.
SG removes approximately 75-80% of the stomach to leave a long narrow gastric tube which restricts food intake. Typically, the volume of stomach is reduced from approx. 1500ml to 200ml.
It is a safe operation with very low rate of complications.
There are many advantages of the SG over the gastric bypass. The SG is simpler and safer. It results in less vitamin and micro-nutrient deficiencies than the gastric bypass procedure.
Gastric Bypass
The operative procedure involves staple dividing the stomach into two chambers. The upper chamber (pouch) receives food and has Avery small volume capacity. The lower chamber (remaining stomach) is “bypassed” and does not receive food.
The small intestine is divided and one end is connected (“anastomosed”) to the pouch. A second connection (“anastomosis”) is made to connect the disconnected stomach and duodenum to the small bowel. This connection enables the digestive fluids to meet the ingested food to enable nutrient breakdown and absorption.
After the procedure is completed, food advances directly from the small gastric pouch to the small intestine without passing through the lower portion of the stomach, duodenum and upper small bowel (jejunum).
This gastric bypass is thought to help obese people lose weight in several different ways. The small pouch restricts the amount of food that can be eaten.
The connection between the small bowel and the gastric pouch re-routes the transit of food directly in to the small bowel. Since the food does not go through the bypassed portion of the stomach and duodenum there are metabolic and hormonal changes that lead to reduced appetite and an increased feeling of fullness.
