Tag: obesity surgery

Could You Be A Suitable Candidate For Lap Banding?

There are several different forms of obesity surgery available now including the reasonably new surgical procedure of gastric lap banding which is rising in popularity and is rapidly becoming the preferred choice for a significant number of morbidly obese individuals. But are you a suitable candidate for gastric lap band weight loss surgery?

In answering this question we will start by presuming that you are suitable for obesity surgery generally and that your only concern is whether or not you should be thinking about lap banding. In very simple terms this would mean that you are over the age of 18, are morbidly obese with a body mass index (BMI) in excess of 40 (or over 35 with one or more co-morbid conditions and that you have already tried traditional weight loss methods (including possible drug treatment) without any success.

It is frequently assumed that people facing weight loss surgery are simply overweight and it is all too easy to forget that people who are severely overweight are often suffering from several other conditions, many of which result from the fact that they are overweight. It is the existence of these other conditions which normally presents a hurdle when it comes to choosing between different surgical options.

Because lap banding is a type of restrictive surgery where the stomach is physically restricted in size to limit the amount of food that can pass through the stomach and digestive system, this form of surgery is probably not going to be suitable if your esophagus, stomach or intestine are abnormal. An abnormality could be inherited or acquired and a common problem seen is a narrowing at some point along the digestive tract.

Problems within the stomach or esophagus which might result in bleeding (such as esophageal or gastric varices – a dilated vein) would also rule out gastric lap band surgery, as will problems at the site where the band is to be placed around the stomach, such as an injury, gastric perforation or scarring.

Problems might also arise if you are suffering from any type of inflammation or inflammatory condition in the gastrointestinal tract like esophagitis, ulcers or Crohn’s disease.

Finally, lap band surgery is not considered suitable for pregnant women or for women who are considering pregnancy. Should pregnancy occur after lap banding the band can be deflated to allow for the higher nutritional requirement however, where deflating the band is not sufficient, the band could need to be removed.

One advantage of lap band surgery is that the procedure is reversible and, if it becomes necessary, the band can be removed returning the stomach to its previous state. This can however also be a disadvantage of the system. Motivation is the key to any type of obesity surgery but is a particular issue when it comes to lap band surgery. Should you have any doubt about how determined you are to succeed then this form of surgery might not be the best choice for you.

What Should You Expect Following Gastric Bypass Surgery?

Gastric bypass has been performed for more than fifty years now and, although there are of course risks the majority of patients are more than satisfied with the outcome and enjoy a a markedly improved standard of living. There is however a price to pay and you will need to lead a very different lifestyle after surgery which could be very difficult if you are not prepared for the change.

Some of the post-operative changes are obvious as the principle behind obesity surgery is to vastly reduce the size of your stomach and to restrict the amount of food which you can eat. This means that the days of sitting down to a big meal are over.

But other consequences of surgery are less obvious.

For example, your days of eating foods that are high in sugar or fat even in small quantities are also over. The results of eating such foods can be very unpleasant as rapid absorption in your newly shortened digestive tract can lead to very disagreeable feelings of faintness.

You will also discover that the change in your pattern of eating leaves you very short of water so that you need to adjust to drinking small quantities of water during the day if you are to avoid dehydration.

This is all very well but just what can you expect from weight loss surgery in terms of weight loss?

Results will of course vary from one person to the next but it is important to begin by understanding just how post-surgical weight loss is measured.

Here you have to begin by calculating how much excess weight you are carrying and this is done by working out your ideal weight. Working in pounds, for a man this will be 106 plus 6 times your height in inches minus 60. As an example, for a man 5ft 10ins tall the ideal weight will be 106 + 6 x (70 – 60) which works out at 166 pounds. For a woman the principle is the same but here a women’s ideal weight is 100 plus 5 times her height measured in inches less 60.

Therefore, if we take the example of our man and give him a weight of 366 pounds then his excess weight is 200 pounds. From this starting point we will measure weight loss in terms of the weight loss as a percentage of excess weight over time. So, if after 6 months he has dropped 100 pounds then his weight loss will be 50 percent.

In general you could expect to drop about 50 percent of your excess weight within the 6 months following surgery increasing to around 70 percent one year after surgery and to in the region of 80 percent after 2 years. For most patients however weight loss will cease after 2 years and some long-term weight gain will appear. Long-term weight gain is generally around 10 to 15 percent of your excess weight.

Once more, in general, if you are excessively overweight you will shed a greater percentage of your excess weight (possibly as much as 90 or 95 percent) while if you are not so heavily overweight you may drop as little as 60 percent within 2 years of surgery.

You will almost certainly not drop 100 percent of your excess weight and are not going to reach your ideal weight as a result of surgery. For this reason, it is sometimes said that weight loss surgery is not a complete success. Nevertheless the vast majority of patients would not agree with this and would say that the improvement in their quality of life is simply indescribable. Something that is clearly evident to anybody who has seen the many gastric bypass pictures posted on the internet these days.