Malabsorptive operations: most everyone is familiar with the gastric bypass. That’s actually considered a combined procedure because you have a restrictive component whereby you cut the stomach into a small pouch and a malabsorptive component whereby you’re bypassing some of the small intestines.
And then there are purely malabsorptive operations such as a biliopancreatic diversion or what we consider a distal gastric bypass, where a tremendous portion of the small intestine is bypassed so it’s radically reducing the efficiency of digestion and absorption.
ANNOUNCER: Weight loss surgery is not for everyone. And for those whom surgery is an option, the choice of surgery depends very much on the individual patient’s needs and goals. The first step is to calculate your BMI, and the second is to talk to your doctor. But morbidly obese people should keep in mind that weight loss surgery is not "the easy way out" and that permanent weight loss will take considerable post-surgery effort.
KEVIN MONTGOMERY, MD: These surgeries are just tools to help them lose weight. There is no magic answer. In the end, all of the surgeries help people to eat less, to fill up on a small amount of food and not be hungry all the time. However, they’re all a major decision and the people that ultimately do best are people that use them as a tool to help them make a lifestyle change such that they make good food choices, that they eat less and that they’re more active.
ANNOUNCER: Although there are many variables involved in losing weight for a morbidly obese person, surgery can greatly increase an obese person’s chance of taking the weight off and keeping it off. And for many obese people whose past efforts have failed, weight loss surgery has been shown to be the only successful method of maintaining long term weight loss.
