Bariatric Surgery

• Restrictive surgical techniques consist of reducing the stomach. These techniques decrease the gastric cavity, which limits the capacity of food intake. The most common restrictive surgeries are gastric banding, tubular gastroplasty (vertical gastrectomy) and gastric balloon.

 

• Gastric Band: consists of placing a ring around the stomach connected to a device located under the skin that allows the band to be adjusted. It manages to limit the passage of food and therefore the amount of food eaten.

• Tubular gastroplasty (vertical gastrectomy): seeks to reduce the stomach by eliminating the part where it is most dilated, making the stomach an elongated tube. It is performed laparoscopically.

• Gastric Balloon : The technique seeks a loss of between 10 and 15 kilos in a period of less than a year. It consists of the installation of a balloon (full of physiological solution) in the stomach thanks to which the feeling of satiety will come much sooner. It is removed after a few months.

surgical techniques seek to ensure that food takes less time to reach the distal intestine, thanks to this, the absorption of food is reduced by having a faster transit. These techniques are especially recommended for patients with a BMI over 50.
 
The most common interventions are duodenal switch or biliopancreatic diversion.

Mixed bariatric surgery is a surgical technique that combines the two previous ideas. The most used technique in this area is the Gastric Bypass.
 

• Gastric Bypass: performed by laparoscopic technique, it divides the stomach, reducing it in size and making the patient feel satisfied sooner. At the same time, by means of an intestinal bypass it manages to make food skip part of the intestine, thus limiting its absorption.

Obesity can be considered as Severe or Morbid Obesity, when the Body Mass Index is greater than 40. Between 35 and 40 it can be considered as average obesity. At this point, few treatments can provide the patient with the necessary weight loss that is not surgical. Diets, physical activity or drugs intended for weight loss offer in these patients very little results for their need.

Patients who are candidates for this type of intervention have a problem that goes beyond aesthetics. It is a medical problem, so the patient must be aware that they must make a change in their life habits. You must have tried to control your weight by other means before and you should only resort to surgical intervention as a last option, having previously been informed about the risks that these can carry.
It should be Dr. Galván who assesses whether the patient is a candidate to undergo bariatric surgery or not. Patients who are at risk for surgery for any medical reason, and those who are unable to rigorously follow the post-intervention diet are excluded.

Always keep in mind that the same intervention may not have exactly the same results in different cases and patients.
Unlike diets, in the case of patients with obesity, the results of bariatric surgery are much better in the long term. Taking into account a period of 15 years, obesity surgery is the most effective method to maintain weight loss and thanks to this many patients obtain improvements in other diseases such as high cholesterol, diabetes, sleep apnea or hypertension for example.
If you want to talk about goals, you should always measure them on the overweight of each patient, the number of kilos that the patient has above his ideal weight. Taking this into account, an operation against obesity is a success if the patient loses at least 60% of the overweight he suffers and it is maintained over time.
Bariatric Surgery Specialists
The specialist in Bariatric Surgery is Dr. Galvan who has more than 30 years of experience.