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What Are the Different Types of Surgery for Obesity?

Summary & Participants

Many obese people are turning to stomach surgery to help them get on the road to a healthier life. Learn about the different procedures doctors are performing for weight loss.

Medically Reviewed On: July 06, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Obesity in the United States is reaching epidemic proportions, with some eight million Americans falling into the category of morbidly obese. Being morbidly obese puts individuals at an extreme risk for a host of serious medical conditions.

To overcome obesity, there are a variety of non-surgical weight loss strategies that people are encouraged to try. However, the chances of a morbidly obese person obtaining long-term weight loss with these tactics are slim, leading many people to turn to surgery.

JEFFREY ALLEN, MD: Each year, more and more patients in America are undergoing some form of a bariatric operation or a weight loss operation. Two years ago, it was 100,000. In 2004, it’s estimated that it was about 125,000. And in 2005, there might be 150,000. So it’s increasing in number.

ANNOUNCER: Currently, weight loss surgeries can be divided into two main categories: restrictive procedures and malabsorptive procedures.

JEFFREY ALLEN, MD: A restrictive operation, in some capacity or another, decreases the size of the functioning stomach. And with the decrease in the size of the functioning stomach, patients can’t eat as fast. They can’t eat as much at one time. They have to chew their food thoroughly. And the net result of that is eating less by fooling the body into thinking that there’s more food in than there really is.

The other type is a malabsorptive operation. And what a malabsorptive operation is, is limiting how much of the food is absorbed. The absorption of nutrients, vitamins and fatty foods, and carbohydrates, occurs in the small intestine predominantly. And if some of that is bypassed or not part of the normal food stream, then that’s a decrease in the amount that can be absorbed.

ANNOUNCER: The two most common procedures are gastric banding and gastric bypass. Gastric banding is a restrictive operation and there are two broad classifications of gastric bands: non-adjustable and adjustable. Adjustable gastric bands are most commonly used. With the banding procedure, the surgeon implants a silicon ring around the top of the stomach. The ring narrows the stomach so that a small pouch forms above the ring.

JEFFREY ALLEN, MD: It’s almost like a belt but it has a balloon on the inner surface, and from time to time we inject saline into the band to tighten the belt down to increase the restriction.

CHRISTINE REN, MD: And food fills the small pouch and then goes through the narrowing into the rest of the stomach.

ANNNOUNCER: The gastric bypass is a combination of restrictive and malabsorptive techniques.

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