Surgery Options
Southwest Bariatric Surgery Group offers intragastric balloons, gastric bands and gastric bypasses. Depending on your individual weight problem and health goals, the decision as to which route you go down is made jointly between you and our team. Briefly, there are two modes of action of weight loss surgery:
- Restrictive operations cause weight loss by reducing the amount of food that can go into your stomach. This makes you feel full very quickly, removes hunger and reduces the need to eat. The gastric band is the simplest form of obesity surgey and works by restriction. The intragastric balloon also works by restricting your stomach capacity.
- Operations that cause malabsorption reduce the amount of food that can be digested by the intestine. Restriction and malabsorption effects are combined in the gastric bypass operation.
The intragastric balloon is inserted through your mouth by endoscopy and gastric band and gastric bypass operations are performed by keyhole (laparoscopic) surgical methods and have the advantages of reduced operative risk, quicker recovery and less scarring.
The amount of weight loss after surgery depends both on the type of operation and your dietary habits. Success is measured as 'percent of excess weight loss'. To determine the amount of excess weight that you are currently carrying, look at the calculations on our BMI calculator.
International studies show that the average excess weight loss in the two years after a gastric band is around 50-65% and after a gastric bypass it is 65-75%. Weight losses of these magnitudes will result in a completely changed body image and improved quality of life. However, the amount of weight you want to lose is just one of the many factors that make up the decision about which operation is right for you.