What is a Gastric Bypass Revision Surgery?
What can you do if you have failed after having weight loss surgery? Many patients have weight loss surgery not really understanding that the surgery is just a tool to achieving weight loss and some patients do not follow the medical advice for postop eating and care causing either their gastric sleeve to fail, or even their gastric bypass. Sometimes these surgeries are also not done right from the beginning and weight loss is just not achieved. In both of these instances the question presented is what can be done, and the answer is a gastric bypass revision surgery. But what is a gastric bypass revision surgery?
The main weight loss surgery options chosen by obese people to change their lives are: Lap Band Surgery, Gastric Sleeve and Gastric Bypass Surgery. Mexico is one of the leading countries where patients are choosing to have their weight loss surgery, and most surgeons in Mexico are highly trained and perform more of these surgeries each year than their counterparts in the USA and Canada. That said, after certain surgeries some patients may experience difficulties after their surgery. For example lapband patients may have the band shift or slip causing discomfort and difficulty when trying to eat, or erosion where the band grows into the stomach wall. With the sleeve some patient may experience reflux based on their diet and even nauseas, and with the bypass sometimes even weight regain after the effect of the malabsorption has worn off.
Obesity is a chronic disease and should be considered a pandemic, and while weight loss surgery can be life-saving, it is not a cure. Patients should know from day one that weight loss surgery’s success will depend upon the patient’s ability to stick to certain lifestyle and nutrition guidelines. As such, the most common reasons for the weight loss failure is related to behavioral changes, reflux disease or stress in their lives.
That said however, these patients may benefit from an additional procedure, known as the Gastric Bypass Revision which may help them to restart their weight loss again, treat specific symptoms and recover their self-esteem.
Gastric Bypass Revision Surgery is a procedure designed to treat and stop weight regain. It tries to help the patient restart their weight loss process after weight regains by reducing their ability to absorb food and calories. This procedure will surgical restore the stomach pouch to its original size after their bypass, or for some it will create a bypass from either a lapband or gastric sleeve surgery.
The most common revision is for patients who previously had a Lap Band. This conversion to Gastric Bypass is particularly effective for those patients who regained weight, their stomach expands and had an element of reflux. That is, Bypass Revision surgery is the ideal treatment for patients who may not have experienced outstanding results following their weight loss surgery. Most Lap Band removal and conversion to Bypass procedures can be done in one stage laparoscopically and provide an excellent amount of success as the bypass is being created for the very first time giving the patient the real benefit of malabsorption.
When it comes to Gastric Sleeve patients, the issues are why are they not losing weight or why would they need to revise their surgery to a gastric bypass. Typically if the patient does not eat right postop and does not achieve their weight loss within the first year and a half post-surgery, the patients may have issues reaching their goal weight with the gastric sleeve. The patient really needs to understand that the gastric sleeve is a diet tool. The failure to follow medical advice and to eat the wrong foods may trigger the need to do a bypass. There are also patients who may suffer of reflux disease after Gastric Sleeve Surgery. Obviously, these patients need to discuss with their medical professional how to get the reflux back in balance before making the decision of having a further surgical intervention. If they are candidates for a revision surgery after evaluating their particular situation, the most common revision suggested is a Bypass Revision Surgery. This surgery is very effective as well for gastric sleeve patients as it also normally provide significant weight loss and typically eliminates any reflux issues the patient may be having.
With Gastric Bypass, the stomach is divided into a small pouch that holds the food and a large section of the small intestine, about 1 and ½ meters is removed so that the food processes in the remaining portion of the intestine and the body typically does not absorb the calories of the food eaten, this is known as malabsorption. The stomach will be smaller and there will be also changes in hormones affecting appetite. A revision surgery for a patient that has a gastric bypass typically does not have the same results as a revision from sleeve or lapband. Here in this surgery the doctor will go in and see what is actually wrong with the current bypass. If the pouch is too large they can make it smaller, and typically the doctor will try to remove an additional ½ meter of the small intestine attempting to retrigger the malabsorption that helps with weight loss. Dr. Juan Hidalgo lead bariatric surgeon at Weight Loss Team states that weight loss is drastically slower with a bypass revision and that the patient may lose weight up to 60% slower due to the fact that the bypass has already been done. That said however, he does see that patients have success with a bypass revision they just need to work at the diet after surgery and realize that this is their last chance at getting the weight off and keeping it off. The patient is required to do more than just have surgery with a bypass revision, according to Dr. Hidalgo.
Revision bariatric surgery is technically complex because of a high incidence of morbidity and it has had questionable efficacy. Gastric bypass revision surgery can obviously carry the same risks as the patients’ initial procedure, so it is important that they follow their surgeon’s instructions exactly to avoid any complications after surgery.
Gastric Bypass Revision Surgery can help a lot of people as long as they are willing to make the changes in their lives. No surgery is a quick fix and for some this is their last chance to achieve a healthy lifestyle and get fit or healthy.
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For more information regarding Clinics/ Hospitals and Weight Loss Options mentioned in this article:
Weight Loss Team – Bariatric Clinic of Dr. Juan F. Hidalgo
Website: www.weightlossteam.com/
Email: info@weightlossteam.com
Telephone: Toll free 1(800) 404-9064 or + 1(818) 949-6911
