Am I a candidate for surgery?
You are a candidate for surgery because you meet the internationally accepted requirements which are to have a body mass index greater than 40 or greater than 35 associated with the diseases that obesity develops, to have obesity of long evolution and to have failed conventional medical measures duly supervised by an endocrinologist. On the other hand, not having a contraindication for surgery and being in an age range that can benefit greatly from this treatment.
What surgical techniques exist?
There is no ideal technique nor is there a single surgical technique, although all of them are performed by laparoscopic surgery or with robotic support. There are 2 main groups, the restrictive techniques such as gastric tubulization which aims to make the patient lose weight by reducing the size of the stomach. In this way the patient will lose weight by eating less and without starving. The second group is that of mixed techniques such as gastric bypass, which combine the restrictive effect with a malabsorptive effect by reducing the length of the intestine where the food arrives. In this way we will achieve that the patient loses more weight than in the restrictive ones only.
In which cases is each surgery indicated?
We will use a restrictive or mixed technique depending on the degree of obesity of the patient, his associated pathology and his eating habits. Broadly speaking, in patients with little excess weight and who do not have a sweet tooth and do not like to snack between meals, we can opt for restrictive techniques and in more obese patients or those with different eating habits we should opt for more complex mixed techniques.
What results can be expected?
After selecting the appropriate technique for each patient we will achieve a weight loss of between 50% and 60% of excess weight in patients with restrictive techniques and between 70% and 80% with mixed techniques. These results can be improved if the patient changes his or her pre-operative bad eating habits and if the patient routinely performs physical activity after surgery.