“The gastric bypass is the most widely used technique in obesity surgery,” according to Dr. Felipe de la Cruz Vigo, one of the leading experts in this field, who explains that it is a mixed technique in which the stomach and the small intestine are treated.
“In the stomach it decreases its capacity by dividing it into two parts: a small one, which is going to receive the food and a larger one through which food will no longer pass but will continue to do the rest of its functions” while “in the small intestine it creates a short circuit of a meter or meter and a half that connects the small stomach with the small intestine, avoiding the duodenum and jejunum, all this somewhat decreases the useful surface for absorption and, above all, causes important changes in gastrointestinal hormones, from which it is going to derive, among others, its beneficial effect on Diabetes Mellitus type 2”.
Losses of 70% of excess weight
With the gastric bypass an average “loss of 70% of excess weight is achieved after five years” and of the comorbidities “probably the one that experiences the most spectacular improvement is Diabetes Mellitus type 2, even going as far as remission”. In addition, the doctor adds the benefits of gastric bypass for “sleep apnea, arterial hypertension and dyslipidemia, also osteoarticular alterations in the load-bearing joints are notably alleviated and infertility usually reverts when menstruation is regularized, even stress incontinence disappears in the first months”. The intervention also allows a “radical improvement in quality of life that is produced by affective-sexual aspects”.
Laparoscopy was the great advance, but nowadays there are improvements such as “the polypropylene mesh band that I place around the small stomach and which avoids the dilatation of its exit, increases by 10% the loss of excess weight obtained in the long term”. Although for Dr. De la Cruz “the great current advance is the application of this technique to the treatment of Diabetes Mellitus type 2”.