Bariatric Weight Loss Surgery - How Laparoscopy Can Help In It?

Obesity is a serious lifestyle disorder that can trigger a myriad of health complications. You may often come across people who fail to lose an inch even after toiling hard. The situation may be further complicated and life-threatening if a person is suffering from diabetes, hypertension, arthritis or a heart problem. Bariatric Surgery comes as a much-needed relief for people who desperately need to lose weight to prevent health problems. People between 18-65 years of age can go for a Bariatric weight loss surgery. The surgery is also helpful for people with morbid obesity (a condition where the BMI is over 40) with associated complications.

• Some of the effective bariatric surgeries for weight loss include
• Laparoscopic Gastric Band surgery
• Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery (RGB)
• Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy
• Biliopancreatic Diversion

Common types of Bariatric surgeries

1. The Laparoscopic Gastric Banding: The gastric banding surgery is a surgical weight loss procedure that divides the stomach into two compartments so that a person consumes lesser amount of food.
   • The surgery requires the surgeon to make 3-4 small cuts in the belly.
   • An adjustable silicone band is placed into the stomach (through the small incisions) to divide the stomach into two compartments (a smaller upper half and a bigger lower part).
   • Due to the banding, the stomach can hold not more than an ounce of food, thus limiting the amount of food a person can eat.
   • There is an opening in the band which serves as a passage through which the food eaten is passed to the rest of the stomach.
   • There is a plastic tube that connects the band to an injection port (situated under the skin). It is through this port that saline is either added or removed from the silicone band (to adjust the tightness of the band).
2. Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery (RGB): The bypass surgery also involves compartmentalizing the stomach into an upper half (small pouch, almost the size of a walnut) and a bigger lower part. Like the gastric banding, the rearrangement reduces the amount of food the stomach can hold to a great extent. In the next step, also termed as the bypass step, the surgeon makes a small hole in the pouch to connect it to the small intestine or the jejunum. As a result of the bypass, the food will now directly enter the small intestine from the pouch. While the bypass surgery can be done using laparoscopy, a person can also undergo an open surgery.
3. Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy: As the name suggests, the surgery involves excision of a large part of a stomach. The excision leaves behind a small sleeve-like pouch, the arrangement ensuring that a person consumes a lesser amount of food.
4. Biliopancreatic Diversion: The surgery is risky and is advised only when an individual has a BMI of more than 50. In Biliopancreatic Diversion, the surgeon excises a part of the stomach, while connecting the remaining half to the lower part of the small intestine or jejunum. As a result, a person consumes lesser calories than before. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!