Thursday, November 29, 2007


Weight loss surgery
Among the several methods in fighting against obesity, there is one particular way which involves doctors the most, the weight loss surgery. To be exact, this method includes several procedures, such as bariatric surgery or gastric bypass surgery, liposuction and lap-band.
Although weight loss surgery is the last method to turn to when wanting to loose weight, lots of people have already undergone the procedure. All types of the surgery are effective however they are expensive and usually not covered by insurance. These kinds of procedures are usually reserved for the seriously obese with life threatening health problems, persons with BMI over 40 or BMI over 35 and having an additional disease. It is highly recommendable to consult your doctor first or a healthcare specialist before making such drastic decisions as several other long-term, sensible and inexpensive strategies of loosing weight and leading a healthy and active life exist.
In the USA gastric surgeries are the most commonly chosen procedure to achieve weight loss. Both the VBG and the roux-en-Y methods are made in special centers with laparoscopic procedure. The Gastric Bypass is a surgical procedure that literally shrinks the stomach, procedure that makes over- consumption of food impossible, by drastically lowering the amount of food you can eat. It is also good to know that it costs over 20,000 USD.
As any kind of surgery involves a certain percent of risk, so do these weight loss procedures, appearing at 50% of the patients. The most common known side-effect could be a lifelong dependence on supplements to provide basic nutritional requirements which cannot be ingested in the course of normal food consumption. Other risk would be suture separation, sepsis, stoma stenosis, marginal ulcer, thromboembolic diseases or gastrointestinal discomfort.

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