WEIGHT LOSS Through Surgery

Conditions When You Must Consider WEIGHT LOSS Through Surgery

Dr. Sushant Wadhera

FNB, MS - General Surgery, MBBS

Bariatrician • 429 People helped • 12 Year experience

Conditions When You Must Consider WEIGHT LOSS Through Surgery

Weight loss can be achieved through certain surgical procedures when all others methods seem to fail. These procedures called bariatric surgery,the most commonly performed are-

a) Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy
Where the stomach is converted into a thin tube of 100 ml capacity.

b) Gastric bypass surgery
This process involves dividing the stomach into 2 portions and connecting the top end directly to the middle portion of small intestine with the food you eat going directly from the top part of the stomach to the intestine.
This class of surgery works in two ways to bring about weight loss – firstly, through surgical changes made to your digestive system, it strives to limit your food intake; and secondly, it also controls your nutrient absorption capability.

There are certain conditions that you need to meet before you can opt for weight loss surgery and these are:
1. Diet and exercise have failed to help you lose significant amount of weight

2. You’re extremely obese and have a body mass index (BMI) of 37.5 kg/m2 or more. (BMI or body mass index is a ratio of your weight (kg) / height (m2) ).

3. Your BMI is above 32.5 kg/m2 along with associated health problems like Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnoea (a common sleep disorder wherein you snore excessively and experience pauses in breathing or shallow breathing instances while sleeping), high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, osteoarthritis or joint pains.

You will need to be evaluated thoroughly by a Bariatric Surgeon who would advise you some tests to do a whole body evaluation before surgery. He might ask you to meet the different specialists as per your co-morbid conditions in order to optimize your clinical condition. This ensures a safer surgery.

Weight loss through surgery shouldn’t be looked upon as a shortcut to losing weight. It is a powerful tool to aid you to become healthier, but remember.... "With Great Power comes Greater Responsibility", because after the surgery you’ll be required to make some changes to your eating and lifestyle habits to ensure a long, healthy and satisfying life.

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