Obesity is a serious health issue for many people, contributing to diabetes, high blood pressure, and other life-altering medical conditions. For morbidly obese patients, gastric bypass via the Roux-en-Y procedure is considered an effective surgical tool for weight loss. The procedure can help patients lose up to 90 percent of their excess body weight. The gastric bypass procedure helps patients lose weight in two different ways. It reduces the functional portion of the stomach to a pouch one ounce or less in size. The gastric bypass procedure also creates a stoma, a small opening between the stomach and the intestine.
The restrictive components of the gastric bypass procedure help patients lose weight by limiting food intake. After the gastric bypass procedure, you will feel full after eating only a small amount of food. The small stoma delays stomach emptying to make the sensation of fullness last longer.
The malabsorptive components of the gastric bypass procedure help patients lose weight by preventing nutrients from being absorbed. This is why patients must take a dietary supplement after the gastric bypass procedure. Exactly how the malabsorptive components of the gastric bypass procedure are done depends on a patient's anatomy, general health, changes from prior surgeries, and what he or she hopes to achieve from the surgery. Doctors may completely divide the stomach compartments from each other or simply create a partition. The small stomach pouch and the intestinal limbs may be connected to each other with either staples or sutures, the roux and biliary intestinal limbs may be made longer or shorter, or a small band may be placed around the stomach pouch.
