Weight Loss Surgery

Weight loss surgery is a term for all surgical procedures intended to induce weight loss in patients who suffer from morbid obesity. Weight loss surgery is performed when a patient has not been able to achieve weight loss by prescribed dieting and regular exercise and whose condition involves health risks. It is also known as bariatric surgery.

Weight loss surgery is not the same as cosmetic surgery, which is the term for procedures done mainly for aesthetic reasons, such as liposuction. Instead, the purpose of weight loss surgery is to achieve weight loss for medical reasons, improving conditions related to an unhealthy Body Mass Index (BMI).

By helping patients loose weight, this type of surgery often helps to improve the patient’s overall health condition. The following table illustrates the different procedures advised to patients with unhealthy BMIs:

Weight loss surgery is widely performed nowadays by two different types of procedures, usually by means of a laparoscopic surgery:

a. Restrictive procedures, which limit the patient’s gastric capacity. This means that the amount of food the patient’s stomach can hold is reduced, which produces the feeling of fullness very quickly. Gastric band and Gastric sleeve are two examples of widely successful restrictive weight loss surgery procedures.

b. Malabsorptive procedures, which reduce the size of the patient’s digestive organs and help food bypass the regular configuration of the patient’s digestive track. This limits the processing of food in both the stomach and the small intestine and therefore limits the absorption of calories. Gastric bypass is the most popular malabsorptive weight loss surgery procedure and is performed successfully worldwide.

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