Gastric Bypass surgery involves reducing the stomach and making food go directly towards the end of the intestine. Laparoscopic surgery is used and it is performed in two steps:
Firstly, the stomach is reduced, cutting it in its top, and leaving it divided into two parts:
- A very small part of the stomach (about 50 cc) that receives the food.
- A “residual” pat of the stomach, where no food passes, but that is not removed, and which continues secreting juices.
Secondly, the intestine is cut and joined with the small part of the stomach to make that the secreted biliopancreatic juices and food join from 75 to 200 cm far from the stomach.
Therefore, the capacity to accommodate food in the stomach is reduced (from approximately the standard 1000 cc stomach of an obese person to a 50 cc capacity after surgery), and also we bypass the intestine so a great amount of eaten food is not absorbed.
The malabsorption that this technique produces makes this procedure the most successful in losing weight, but for its risk characteristics should only be used in selected patients.
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