Duodenal Switch Surgery

Obesity is becoming a serious health issue nowadays causing several health problems like hypertension, diabetes, heart problems and others. Nowadays, people are looking for several methods of losing weight like dieting, exercise and there are vast numbers of people who are turning towards weight loss surgery options.

There are several biological and genetic factors are responsible for obesity or increased weight. The persons whose BMI is more than 40 are said to be an obese person and for them weight loss surgery option is best. Obesity leads to several problems such as hypertension, sleep apnea, diabetes, and joint pain, shortness of breath, infertility and even depression. But to find best weight loss surgery option is not an easy procedure. There are several risk and complications are associated with it. Generally, most of the weight loss surgery procedures promote weight loss by food restriction, food malabsorption and both food restriction and malabsorption.

Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass surgery is considered to be best weight loss surgery option. In United States, it accounts for about 90% of total frequently performed weight loss surgeries. In this procedure, the stomach is made small with the help of surgical staples and thus making a small stomach pouch. Then the pouch is attached to the middle part of the small intestine. The food then passed from the upper part of the small intestine and stomach that reaches to the middle part of small intestine via small openings. Bypassing the stomach limit the amount of food intake by the patients. The benefit of this surgery is that in one year after surgery 65 to 80% of weight loss can be achieved and problems like diabetes, sleep apnea, joint pain can also be resolved.

Laparoscopic gastric band surgery is another weight loss surgery option that provides long-term weight loss benefits. In this procedure, a silicon elastic band is placed around the upper part of the stomach creating a small pouch and a narrow passage into the lower part of the stomach. This limits the amount of food intake and creates a feeling of fullness. This surgery is effective for severely obese people.

Biliopancreatic diversion results into reduction of food intake. In this procedure a small part of the stomach is removed and the remaining portion is connected to the small intestine bypassing the other part of the intestine forming a common channel through which bile or pancreatic juice enters into the colon. It promotes weight loss by reducing the amount of calories. Biliopnacreatic diversion with duodenal switch is a variation of BPD. It promotes long term weight loss and reported to provide about 72% of excess body weight. However, this weight loss surgery option is not used frequently because of its risk of nutritional deficiency.