Weight Loss Surgery gives recipients second chance at life
Doug Salisbury was a long-time dieter. Nothing worked.”I was more than 500 pounds,” he said. “I work in a profession where obesity is really high. I drive a truck.” He had a gastric sleeve on Dec. 22. “With his encouragement and knowledge of it, it helped me make that decision. I’ve lost 81 pounds so far. I’m glad I had the surgery because I do more now than I did two months ago,” the Bowling Green man said. “I’m off all my medications but one. I’ll be 44 this year. I feel like I’m 25. I get out and do things I couldn’t do three months ago. It’s hard to do things because you’re carrying so much weight.” Salisbury tells as many people about the surgery as he can. “I try to preach it to a few people to help them out,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I helped a co-worker get his surgery this week.””All don’t have the same efficiency and all don’t have the same detriment,” Nwanguma said. How the surgeries work In Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. The surgeon creates a small pouch at the top of the stomach. The pouch is the only part of the stomach that receives food. This greatly limits the amount that you can comfortably eat and drink at one time. The small intestine is then cut a short distance below the main stomach and connected to the new pouch. Food flows directly from the pouch into this part of the intestine. The main part of the stomach, however, continues to make digestive juices. The portion of the intestine still attached to the main stomach is reattached farther down. This allows the digestive juices to flow to the small intestine. Because food now bypasses a portion of the small intestine, fewer nutrients and calories are absorbed. The Gastric Band System In the adjustable laparoscopic gastric band procedure, a band containing an inflatable inner silicone band is placed around the upper part of the stomach and fixed in place. This creates a small stomach pouch above the gastric band with a very narrow opening to the rest of the stomach. A port is then placed under the skin of the abdomen. A tube connects the port to the gastric band. By injecting or removing fluid through the port, the balloon can be inflated or deflated to adjust the size of the band. The Gastric band restricts the amount of food that your stomach can hold, so you feel full sooner, but it doesn’t reduce the absorption of calories and nutrients. Gastric sleeve gastrectomy. With a gastric Sleeve part of the stomach is separated and removed from the body. The remaining section of the stomach is formed into a tube-like structure. This smaller stomach cannot hold as much food. It also produces less of the appetite-regulating hormone ghrelin, which may lessen a person’s desire to eat. However, gastric sleeve gastrectomy does not affect the absorption of calories and nutrients in the intestines. The duodenal switch With biliopancreatic diversion begins with the surgeon removing a large part of the stomach. The valve that releases food to the small intestine is left, along with the first part of the small intestine, called the duodenum. The surgeon then closes off the middle section of the intestine and attaches the last part directly to the duodenum. This is the duodenal switch. The separated section of the intestine isn’t removed from the body. Instead, it’s reattached to the end of the intestine, allowing bile and pancreatic digestive juices to flow into this part of the intestine. This is the biliopancreatic diversion. As a result of these changes, food bypasses most of the small intestine, limiting the absorption of calories and nutrients. This, together with the smaller size of the stomach, leads to weight loss. How they compare The gastric band surgery is not doing so well, accounting for 8 percent of surgeries, Nwanguma said. “A lot of patients have issues with the gastric band band,” he said. “Food can get
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