Bariatric surgery is a type of surgery in which the digestive system is altered to decrease the amount of foods tolerated by the stomach or to alter the natural digestion process, in order to drastically reduce the amount of calories absorbed, facilitating weight loss.
Because it is a type of surgery that, in most cases, is highly invasive, bariatric surgery is usually indicated only as a form of treatment when the person has already tried other forms of treatment but without the desired results, or in cases of overweight. puts life at risk.
- Thus.
- Before undergoing such surgery.
- Everyone must undergo a rigorous medical evaluation with a multidisciplinary team made up of a surgeon.
- A nutritionist.
- A psychologist.
- A cardiologist and other medical specialties.
Bariatric surgery is generally indicated for people with obesity higher than Grade II who have not shown results after several months of treatment with an adequate diet and regular physical activity.
This surgery is usually only indicated for people aged 16 to 65, and is only indicated by the Brazilian Ministry of Health in case of:
At the same time, the Ministry of Health also identifies some cases where bariatric surgery is not recommended and including: uncontrolled psychiatric disorder, including the use of drugs and alcoholic beverages; you have severe, decompensated heart or lung disease that has portal hypertension with esophageal varicose veins; you have inflammatory diseases of the upper gastrointestinal tract or have Cushing syndrome due to cancer.
Watch the video below and check the conditions under which surgery can be performed:
In addition to significant weight loss, bariatric surgery also brings benefits related to obesity-related diseases, with the improvement and cure of diseases such as:
This type of surgery is also often associated with other social and psychological benefits, such as reducing the risk of depression and increasing self-esteem, social interactions and physical mobility.
The type of surgery should be chosen with the doctor, depending on the clinical conditions and preferences of the person. These surgeries can be performed with normal cut of the abdomen or videolaparoscopy, where only small cuts are made during the operation:
This is the least invasive type of bariatric surgery and involves placing a ring-shaped band around the stomach to decrease in size, contributing to lower dietary and caloric intake.
This type of surgery usually presents fewer health risks and has a faster recovery time, but its results may be less satisfactory than other techniques. Learn more about gastric band placement.
Bypass surgery is invasive surgery in which your doctor removes much of your stomach and then connects the beginning of the intestine to the remaining part of your stomach, reducing the available space for food and the amount of calories absorbed.
This type of surgery has excellent results, allowing you to lose up to 70% of the starting weight, but it also carries more risks and a slower recovery. Better understand how gastric bypass is performed.
Unlike gastric bypass, in this type of surgery, which can also be known as “sleeve surgery”, the surgeon maintains the natural connection from the stomach to the intestine, removing only part of the stomach to make it smaller than normal, thus reducing the amount of calories ingested.
This surgery presents less risk than the bypass, but also has less satisfactory results, allowing to lose about 40% of the initial weight, being similar to the gastric band. See how this type of surgery is performed.
In this surgery, part of the stomach and most of the small intestine, which is the main region where nutrient absorption occurs, is removed. In this way, much of the food is not digested or absorbed, which reduces the amount of calories in the diet.
However, although much of the small intestine is removed, bile continues to be released into the first piece of small intestine that then connects to the final part of the small intestine, so that there is no disruption in bile flow, even since food no longer passes to the northernmost part of the small intestine.
The risks of bariatric surgery are mainly related to the number and severity of obesity-related diseases, with the main complications being:
Normalmente essas complicações surgem ainda durante o período de internamento hospitalar, e são rapidamente resolvidas pela equipe médica. No entanto, dependendo da gravidade dos sintomas, pode ser necessário fazer uma nova operação para corrigir o problema.
In addition, it is common for patients to develop nutritional complications such as anemia, folic acid deficiency, calcium and vitamin B12, and malnutrition can also occur in the most severe cases.
For faster recovery and fewer complications, see what foods should be after bariatric surgery.