What to expect from a Gastric Bypass Surgery?

The essential nature of gastric bypass surgery involves dividing the upper stomach into two portions using surgical stapling, and connecting the resulting small pouch of the upper stomach to the intestines using a "Roux-en-Y" intestinal limb.

Most gastric bypass procedures today are performed laparoscopically, with the surgeon manipulating specialized tools through minimally invasive small incisions, resulting in less bleeding, less pain, shorter hospital stays and faster recovery times than with traditional open bypass surgery.

The modern Roux-en-Y bypass (RYGBP) procedure prevents bile from entering the upper part of the stomach and esophagus, an uncomfortable reflux mechanism associated with older forms of the surgery, and allows digestion to bypass the remaining stomach portion and the first segment of the small intestines. The resulting reconfiguration of the digestive tract gives patients a feeling of fullness, even when they eat small amounts of food.

Because the reconfigured digestive tract bypasses the part of the intestines where calcium and iron are absorbed into the bloodstream, anemia and osteoporosis are common long-term complications of gastric bypass surgery. Bypass patients must therefore take lifelong calcium and iron supplements to guard against these two conditions.

The proximal gastric bypass, RYGBP, results in little malabsorption -- that is, patients still receive the nutritional benefits of the foods they eat. However some surgeons modify the RYGBP to incorporate an element of malabsorption in order to increase weight loss in some critically obese patients.

This modification, called a distal gastric bypass, may result in more severe nutritional complications than the proximal RYGBP. The benefits of increased long-term weight loss using the distal gastric bypass procedure have not yet been well established with clinical data. As a result, many surgeons reserve the distal RYGBP for very select circumstances.

Combined with a healthy diet and regular exercise, many gastric bypass patients enjoy significant improvements to their quality of life and observe durable, dramatic weight loss, as well as relief from many weight-related medical illnesses.