Many people who have taken the decision to have surgery to lose weight are in the choice between different options like the band gastric bypass, intragastric balloon, etc..

The first is to discuss the matter with the specialist, who is best suited to provide information on different types of surgery and what is the best suited to each case. However, having information about the advantages and disadvantages of each type of surgery will give a broader view on the subject.

Obesity Surgery

It is necessary to note that there is no intervention better than another, all have their pros and cons, the decision in any case will depend on various factors such as current weight, ability to control what you eat, health status, among other variables.

Currently, surgery is most commonly practiced gastric bypass, but for some people the best choice might be the so-called gastric banding and biliopancreatic diversion for others.

Consider then some characteristics of the most important weight-loss surgery:

  • The intragastric balloon: This is a non-surgical procedure is performed by placing a balloon in the stomach which is then filled with a liquid. This makes the remaining space for food and maintains a sense of satiety.



  • The gastric band: Is a “belt” that is placed around the stomach and is then inflated, compressing it until it is in the form of an hourglass, where the top is smaller and narrower passage communicates to the bottom at which food must move slowly into the digestive system. A result that you get more fullness on less food.
  • Gastric bypass surgery: This type of operation also divides the stomach into two parts, the difference is that food does not pass from one party to another, as with the gastric band, but an artificial connection is made to arrive in the form directly to a lower portion of the intestine. Thus, leaving aside the sections where most absorption occurs as a result there is greater satiety and less fat absorption. However, they also absorb less vitamins and minerals, therefore the patients should be taking supplements to compensate for this deficit.
  • Biliopancreatic diversion: As in the case of gastric bypass, is to proceed to cut a part of the stomach and diverts the passage of food and juice, to join in a lower part of the intestines. In this type of intervention does not create two stomachs, one to collect food and the other to produce gastric juices, but directly off most of the stomach.

In general, if the patient has few health problems and for a better outcome, you are advised to use the gastric band, being less invasive than bypass and did not change anything in the digestive system, has less surgical risk postoperative complications and is a reversible process, but weight loss is less than that achieved with other interventions.

In patients suffering from diseases such as hypercholesterolemia, hypertension and diabetes, in which their health may deteriorate seriously in the long run, the best is the gastric bypass or biliopancreatic diversion. However, these operations have a higher surgical risk that the band and when you choose them is because it is certain that if unchecked obesity are greater health risks than those of the operations themselves.

Gastric bypass also recommended for people who can not control the consumption of high calorie foods such as soft drinks, candy, ice cream and they can pass easily if they had the gastric band, weight loss boycotting. In contrast, the bypass would suffer the so-called “dumping syndrome” which is a series of symptoms that are caused by consumption of sweet foods, such as suffering from nausea, vomiting and upset stomach, running as an impediment to this problem.

The biliopancreatic diversion is a type of intervention that produces a greater weight loss but is more invasive, since it removes much of the stomach, also presenting a higher risk of deficiency of vitamins and minerals, as the section of intestine is removed is large.

All bariatric operations use different mechanisms to control the weight that can be:

  1. Restrictive: They reduce the size and/or capacity of the stomach. At the same time the constraint may be internal in the case of gastric balloon or externally in the case of vertical gastroplasty, which is created in the upper stomach a gastric pouch that has a smaller capacity and aims to retain the longer food in the stomach pouch and feel full after eating a small amount of food.
  2. Malabsorptive or derivative: In what they altered the absorption of the feed to increase weight loss.
  3. Mixed: A combination of mechanism restrictive and malabsorptive weight or derivative, adding as a bonus the advantage of hormonal changes, and amending a number of hormones and neurotransmitters that send nerve signals to the brain to tell you when to eat or when it should not do so. The procedure that uses this mechanism is the gastric bypass.

Partly, the bariatric surgery procedures can be performed by open system, called laparotomy or laparoscopy. In this type of surgery an incision is made in the upper abdomen of 15 cm with the laparoscopic technique small cuts are made through the abdominal wall, they are introduced micro instruments and cameras that make working inside abdomen.

Any obesity surgery material change in the digestive system, so will require changing habits regarding food and physical activity.

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