Surgery is the most severe of the recommended treatments for obesity. Bariatric surgery is reserved for cases of severe obesity that have been resistant to all other methods of weight loss and weight control. There are two basic types of bariatric surgery (also known as gastrointestinal surgery), each with a different purpose. The risks for both are similar, as are the prospective results and outcome.
Restrictive Weight Loss Surgery
The first type of bariatric weight loss surgery is ‘restrictive’. It includes the well-known ‘stomach stapling’. The purpose of restrictive surgery is to restrict the amount of food that can be eaten at one time. Doctors create a small pouch at the top of the stomach that holds about one ounce of food, with a small opening at the bottom to hold food in the pouch and cause a feeling of fullness. After the surgery, a patient can eat no more than 3/4 cup to a cup of well-chewed bland food at a time without becoming nauseous. The intent of the surgery is to reduce the amount of food eaten by restricting the amount of food that can be eaten at once.
Variations of restrictive surgery include ‘lap...