At Lourdes Bariatric and Weight Wellness Center, we offer the most successful malabsorptive surgery available, the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. The surgeon performing your Roux-en-Y gastric bypass will staple your stomach, leaving only a small pouch. This will limit your food intake, enabling you to lose weight. In addition, part of your small intestine will be bypassed, so not all the nutrients and calories from the food you ingest will be absorbed into your body. For this reason, it is extremely important that you take vitamin supplements following surgery.
There are some risks you need to understand before choosing to undergo a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. These risks include iron deficiency anemia, chronic anemia, bone calcium loss, and metabolic bone disease, all of which can result from lower vitamin and mineral absorption. However, these complications can be avoided by taking the proper vitamin and mineral supplements. “Dumping syndrome” is another potential side effect. This occurs when food in your stomach is released into the small intestine too quickly as a result of eating too much at a time or ingesting too much sugar. While not a serious health risk, “dumping syndrome” can result in weakness, nausea, perspiration, dizziness, and diarrhea. Another risk is that the stomach pouch may stretch over time, allowing the patient to overeat and ultimately regain weight.
The length of your hospital stay after surgery may last anywhere from three to five days. Within about six weeks, most patients can return to the same levels of activity they had before the procedure. Weight loss normally begins quickly following surgery and gradually slows down until it stabilizes about a year or two after the procedure. While you may lose weight initially due to the surgery, you will need to make some permanent adjustments to your lifestyle in order to achieve and sustain your target weight. These changes include exercising properly and eating according to the guidelines provided for you by your dietitian.
The benefits of surgery, however, can be extensive. They include substantial weight loss and a decrease in the risk of life-threatening diseases and certain cancers. Surgery may also prompt further positive adjustments in your lifestyle, such as improvement in your physical activity and emotional health. You will likely feel better about yourself, have more energy, and be in better physical condition.
Lourdes and Dr. Alex Argotte now offer the LAP-BAND procedure, an innovative, safe, and effective intervention for severely obese adult patients who have repeatedly failed more conservative weight reduction alternatives, such as supervised diet, exercise, and behavior-modification programs. This system is designed to help you lose excess body weight for improvement or resolution of obesity-related health conditions and enhancement of life.
The LAP-BAND System is the only adjustable and reversible obesity surgery that does not require cutting and stapling of the stomach or gastrointestinal re-routing to bypass normal digestion. Patient benefits include reduced surgical trauma, complications, pain, and scarring, as well as shorter hospital stays and recovery time compared to other obesity surgeries. It is important to note that the rate of weight loss is typically slower with the LAP-BAND procedure than with gastric bypass. It is also critical that regular follow-up be maintained for optimal results. The LAP-BAND System restricts the amount of food the stomach can hold by placing an inflatable silicone band around the upper part of the stomach. The new, small stomach pouch limits the amount of food that can be consumed at one time. Along with this, a narrowed stomach outlet increases the time it takes for the stomach to empty, thus making you feel full sooner and feeling satisfied so you are not hungry between meals. Later, the size of your stomach outlet (or stoma) can be adjusted by the surgeon via an access port that is placed beneath the skin during surgery. This adjustment process helps control the rate of weight loss.
By limiting how much you can eat, reducing your appetite, and slowing digestion, the LAP-BAND System is a tool to help you achieve sustained weight loss. It is important to know, however that the LAP-BAND System by itself will not ensure that you reach your goal weight or even that you lose weight at all. The amount of weight you lose depends both on the band and on your motivation and commitment to a new lifestyle and eating habits.
To learn more contact Lourdes Hospital Bariatric and Weight Wellness Center. We can answer some of your initial questions and provide you with the details of our next free informational seminar.
Lourdes Bariatric and Weight Wellness Center
1528 Lone Oak Rd.
Paducah, KY 42003
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Click here to view the schedule of our informational seminars on Gastric Bypass & Lap Banding.