What is Gastric Bypass Surgery?
Gastric bypass is a surgical method used to help people with morbid obesity lose weight and reverse other health problems associated with being overweight, such as high blood pressure and Type II diabetes. The Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, creates a small pouch in the top of the stomach to which the small intestine is connected. With a smaller stomach, the patient feels “full” sooner and is less likely to overeat. Depending upon what is best for each individual patient, the bypass is performed as an “open” procedure, or with a minimally invasive technique using laparoscopes.
Gastric bypass surgery, a type of bariatric surgery (weight loss surgery), is a surgical procedure that alters the process of digestion. Bariatric surgery is the only option today that effectively treats morbid obesity in people for whom more conservative measures such as diet, exercise, and medication have failed. There are several types of gastric bypass procedures, but all of them involve bypassing part of the small bowel by greater or lesser degrees. For this reason, procedures of this type are referred to as malabsorptive procedures, because they involve bypassing a portion of the small intestine that absorbs nutrients. Some of these procedures also involve stapling the stomach to create a small pouch that serves as the “new” stomach or surgically removing part of the stomach. Although a gastric bypass procedure is malabsorptive, it may also be restrictive because the size of the stomach is reduced so that the amount of food that can be eaten is “restricted” due to the smaller sto
