Gastric Bypass Surgery: All Your Questions Answered

What You Need to Know About Having a Gastric Bypass

What is gastric bypass surgery?

The gastric bypass procedure is a type of bariatric surgery, or weight loss surgery, that effectively helps to reduce your food intake if you have tried and failed to lose weight through diet and exercise.

At the present time, there are two available techniques for gastric bypass:

Roux-en-Y-gastric bypass (traditional and laparoscopic)
Biliopancreatic diversion bypass
- This type of surgery is generally performed on patients who have an extremely high body mass index (greater than 50), but poses greater risks post-surgery including malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies.

These surgeries reduce stomach capacity to a few ounces or less of food or liquid.

Advantages of Undergoing Gastric Bypass Surgery

What are the benefits of gastric bypass surgery?

Gastric bypass can greatly improve your quality of life since it reduces the number and severity of health problems that obese and overweight people are prone to suffer, including diabetes, heart, and circulatory problems. Additionally, since many patients lose dramatic amounts of weight (approximately 50% or more of your excess weight within 2 years after surgery) patients physically begin to look much better and feel much more active, so they start to mentally and psychologically feel better about themselves.

Conditions associated with obesity may be resolved or greatly improved, including:

Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes
High blood pressure
High cholesterol levels
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)

Improvements in diabetes, lowering cholesterol, high blood pressure and high bloof triglycerides may in turn decrease the risk of dying from diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular conditions such as heart attack.

Day of Surgery & Recovery

How much time does a patient spend in surgery and what is the recovery time in the hospital?

It is a complex procedure performed under general anesthesia (you sleep through the surgery). Your time in surgery is approximately between one to four hours, followed by a one to seven day stay in the hospital. Generally, many patients return to normal activities within weeks of surgery.

Gastric Bypass Procedure Costs

How much do gastric bypass operations cost?

The costs of the operation range, but the average is approximately $20,000. In many cities, like New York for example, the cost can be as high as $30,000. If you include the costs of preliminary test and/or if complications develop (that require hospitalization) subsequent to the surgery, then the price can increase dramatically.

Certain health insurance companies may cover the surgery, although it is rare. Health insurance companies rarely pay for the treatment of obesity, even though being obese has serious and even fatal effects on your health. They will sometimes pay for a gastric bypass surgery in cases of chronic morbid obesity. Additionally, patients suffering from co-morbidities such as diabetes or heart disease may qualify for health insurance coverage for gastric bypass surgery.

If you are buying health insurance for yourself, and you are or will be a candidate for a gastric bypass, or if obesity runs in your family (since it hereditary factors play a role in obesity), you should find out the policies your potential insurance company has on covering gastric bypass surgery.

Risks and Side Effects of a Gastric Bypass

What are the possible risks and side effects of gastric bypass surgeries?

There are some dangerous risks. There are special precautions that can be taken to reduce risks. Therefore, patients should seriously discuss these risks with their surgeon before they can be considered good candidates for surgery and make a final decision to undergo a gastric bypass.

As with most surgeries, there is potential for infection at the point of incision.

Peritonitis is a leak from the stomach into other areas of the body.
Pulmonary embolism is a blood flow blockage into the lungs
Dumping syndrome is possible and occurs if food moves too fast through the body.

Less serious risks include uncomfortable symptoms such as faintness, general weakness, vomiting, nausea, sweating and maybe diarrhea.

Another side effect is anemia. Since a person is eating less after the surgery, the body is getting fewer nutrients. But this problem can be solved by iron and vitamin B₁₂ injections once or twice a year.

Lap-Band or Gastric Bypass: Comparison

What is the difference between Lap-Band surgery and gastric bypass surgery?

Lap-Band adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) uses a band to divide your stomach into two parts. It can stay in place indefinitely and can be adjusted or removed.

The Lap-Band surgery is a good option for people who are not severely obese. It is a less complicated procedure and lower complication rates during and post surgery when compared to the gastric bypass operation. Patients will generally lose weight at a slower pace and often the overall weight loss will not be as dramatic.

Content Created/Medically Reviewed by our Expert Doctors