Obesity Surgery

Though diet, exercise, behavior therapy, and anti-obesity drugs are preferred treatments, obesity surgery or bariatric surgery, as it is more formally known, becomes necessary and has been a popular weapon in the war against obesity.

Obesity surgery or weight loss surgery generally results in greater weight loss than conventional treatment, and leads to improvements in quality of life.

But it is not as if you can just walk in for obesity surgery. Before someone can become eligible for bariatric or obesity surgery, some criteria must be met, such as an understanding of the operation, its implications on the patient's lifestyle.

The main procedures can be grouped into the following categories:

(a) Malabsorptive Procedures: Though these procedures also reduce the size of the stomach, these operations owe most of their success to malabsorption.

(b) Biliopancreatic Diversion : These obesity surgery procedures are predominantly restrictive procedures, and this kind of obesity surgery primarily reduces stomach size.

Obesity Surgery

(c) Vertical Banded Gastroplasty : These include the Mason procedure and stomach stapling.

(d) Adjustable gastric band (or "Lap Band")

(e) Sleeve gastrectomy

(f) Mixed procedures: The mixed obesity surgery procedures include gastric bypass surgery (like the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure), Sleeve gastrectomy with Duodenal Switch and Implantable Gastric Stimulation.