Weight Loss Surgery
Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass
Obesity Solutions has performed over 1,000 Roux-en-Y (RNY) gastric bypass surgeries since 2002 with excellent results and a low complication rate. Our RNY patients average 80% of excess body weight loss at 24 months post-surgery.
How Gastric Bypass Works
In the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RNY), a golf ball-sized part of your stomach is surgically divided from the rest of the stomach, completely separating the two pieces in most cases. The now much smaller stomach severely restricts the amount of food you can take in. The larger lower portion of the stomach never holds food again, but does help with digestion.
A branch of a Y-shaped segment of your small bowel is attached to the new small stomach. The other branch of the bowel remains attached to the "original" stomach. This delays the mixing of food with digestive juices resulting in poorer absorption of calories and nutrients.
As a result, if you eat carbohydrates, including sugar, after the gastric bypass surgery, the passage of “carbs” into your small intestine causes an immediate outpouring of fluid into the bowel and a release of insulin into the blood stream. As a result, you feel nausea, cramping and diarrhea for about 20 to 30 minutes. Called “dumping syndrome,” this keeps you from eating the wrong foods for the rest of your life.
Permanent Changes
With gastric bypass surgery, your body forces you to conform to the same behaviors found in any sensible diet program: eat three meals a day, eat small portions, eat slowly, avoid high calorie foods, and when you’re full, stop eating. The difference is that, unlike other methods of weight loss, you must be emotionally prepared to stay on these healthy, strict food choices for the rest of your life. For more answers to specific types of food that you will and won't be able to eat, click here.
Psychological Preparation
Often with weight loss, people can expect certain psychological and behavioral changes. This may affect your relationship with the people around you, so most bariatric surgery patients need to seek professional help to deal with these changes. Part of Obesity Solution's program even includes seeing a psychologist prior to surgery to help you prepare and cope with these drastic lifestyle changes. After surgery, we can help you find numerous professional agencies and support groups to help cope with the changes ahead.
During the first year following surgery — the "Honeymoon Phase" — the easiest, quickest, and greatest amount of weight loss will occur. Losing the excess weight is only the first stage of your weight loss program. The most difficult years are ahead of you. Recognizing obesity as an addictive disease can help you better understand the emotional struggles you will be faced with as you lose weight. The underlying cause of overeating still needs to be addressed.
Results from Gastric Bypass
Nationwide statistics show that 80% of gastric bypass patients lose at least half of their excess body weight and maintain that loss for more than five years. The average weight loss equaled 80% of excess body weight. But this also means that 2 out of every 10 gastric bypass patient failed to lose weight, or they lost it and gained it back within five years.
Because of very quick weight loss within the first few days and weeks of surgery, more than 96% of health problems related to morbid obesity are completely resolved and reversed during that time.
Lifetime Commitment & Dietary Changes
After surgery, your body will force you to change many eating habits for the rest of your life. The small stomach pouch initially will only hold a few ounces of food at a time. Initially, you will follow a prescribed progressive liquid and soft foods diet. By 6 to 8 weeks after surgery, you will be eating two or three ounces of protein with a small amount of complex carbohydrates. This new way of eating. which includes finishing the protein first and limiting your sugar and carbohydrates, is key to long-term success.
In addition, your stomach no longer helps you grind food, because only small amounts of digestive juices are available to turn foods into a paste. So you will have to take smaller bites and chew them well before swallowing, because too large of bites or food that's not well chewed can cause pain or discomfort and possibly vomiting.
The "dumping syndrome,” explained earlier, also means you will no longer be able to eat foods you may now thoroughly enjoy that are high in sugar, calories and fat. Otherwise, you will endure 20-30 minutes of nausea, and possibly vomiting, diarrhea, and overall weakness each time.
Unlike diets or other weight loss surgery options, you can’t return to your normal eating habits and food choices once you lose 20 or 30 pounds after a gastric bypass. This is a lifetime commitment, but one that will release you to enjoy other rewards of health, pleasure and expression not easily available to the morbidly obese.
For more answers about food choices after a gastric bypass, click here.
Advantages
Compared to other weight-loss surgeries, gastric bypass offers:
• Greater overall weight loss due to the tighter dietary restrictions
and less caloric absorption
• Faster initial weight loss
• Body helps direct healthier food choices because of strong discomfort
caused by eating sugars, fats and carbs
• 96% of health problems related to obesity are completely resolved and reversed quickly
Disadvantages
• Permanent change in your anatomy
• Restricts dietary choice for rest of life
• Dumping syndrome from eating foods high in sugar, calories and fat causes
20-30 minutes of nausea, and possibly vomiting, diarrhea, and overall
weakness each time.
Risks
The RNY both restricts food intake and interferes with absorption resulting in more consistent weight loss. But because of the complexity, it contains a higher risk of complications or side effects.
Complications: The complications of gastric bypass surgery are much less severe than those of intestinal bypass surgeries and are usually easily handled by a competent medical staff and patient compliance.
All surgical procedures have risks, and they are real. The risk of complications following gastric bypass surgery is similar to the risks following any major surgery on your digestive tract. Morbidly obese patients face added risks because of their body size.
Potential Complications: • Death • Gastric/ Esophageal Perforation • Nausea and vomiting •Gasstroesophageal reflux • Ulceration • Heartburn • Stoma obstruction • Esophageal dilatation or dysmotility • Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) • Esophagitis • Gastritis • Blood Clots/ Pulmonary embolism • Pneumonia • Infection • Injury to stomach or spleen • Gallstones