Weight Loss Surgery

Weight loss surgery as a last resort can successfully help severely overweight or obese people lose excess weight. There are several different types of weight loss surgeries to choose from. Consult your health care provider to discuss whether or not you make a good candidate for weight loss surgery, and which procedure would work best for you.

There are two basic types of weight loss surgery that are currently used for weight reduction. Restrictive procedures work by decreasing food intake. Malabsorptive procedures, on the other hand, alter digestion, and cause food to be poorly digested and incompletely absorbed so that it is eliminated in the stool.

Bariatric and Gall Bladder Weight Loss Surgery

Bariatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the causes, prevention, and treatment of obesity. Although diet, exercise, behavior therapy and anti-obesity drugs are first-line treatment, medical therapy for severe obesity has limited short-term success and almost nonexistent long-term success. Therefore, obesity surgery (or bariatric surgery) has been a popular treatment in the war against obesity. Weight loss surgery generally results in greater weight loss than conventional treatment, and leads to improvements in quality of life and obesity related diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

In open gallbladder surgery (cholecystectomy), the surgeon removes the gallbladder through a single, large incision in the abdomen. You will need general anesthesia, and the surgery lasts 1 to 2 hours. The surgeon will make the incision either under the border of the right rib cage or in the middle of the upper part of the abdomen (between the belly button and the end of the breastbone).