Duodenal Switch Surgery

Obesity is the major concern nowadays. Research shows that it is one of the second leading causes of death in United States and it is estimated that about 72 million people are obese and the number is increasingly growing. Eventually for an extremely obese person, whose BMI index is more than 40, bariatric surgery like gastric sleeve and duodenal switch are proved to be very effective. Both forms of bariatric surgery offer significant weight loss. However, bariatric surgery is a major procedure and therefore some kind of bariatric surgery risks and complications are often included depending upon the patient’s obesity related health problems.

Bariatric surgery is however a minimally invasive surgical procedure but patient need to stay for two to three days in hospital and it takes about several weeks to completely recover from the surgery. Following the surgery, patient need to follow strict post surgical guidelines otherwise, there may be severe complications. Some of the bariatric surgery risks include:

• Leakage of fluid from the intestine through incision or stapling done during the operation. There may be bleeding or chance that incision becomes infected.
• Injury to spleen is uncommon complications that require removal of spleen in the case if bleeding is not controlled.
• Dumping syndrome: There may be abdominal cramps, lose motion and diarrhea after eating certain types of foods. However, this can be offended by avoiding solid foods and by drinking juice.
• Vitamins and iron deficiency commonly occur after surgery. This can be treated by taking vitamin and iron supplementation.
• Gastritis or formation of ulcers in the intestine is common in person who smoke too much or on some kind of medications. However, ulcer occurs in about 2% of patients.
• Pulmonary embolism also occurs in some cases. It may cause sudden death, shortness of breathe and chest pain. However, about 1% case of such conditions is found.

Other Bariatric surgery risks include too much weight loss although it rarely happens. Bariatric surgery post-surgical weight loss differs from patient to patient. However, in few patients excessive weight loss occurs due to poor food intake, anorexia, depression, untreated chronic stricture. Bariatric surgery is considered to be next generation weight loss surgery however one should completely look for weight loss interventions before going for surgery.