What are the surgical treatments for obesity
Written by:Top experts in endocrinology tell us what is obesity surgery and the different existing treatments in Medicine.
L ' obesity is a very serious problem: only in Italy, 0.5% of the population suffers from this disease, and those numbers tend to duplicate itself.
A cure for obesity
When all dietary treatments have failed, you need to opt for other therapeutic alternatives. Bariatric surgery, which deals with the treatment of obesity, facilitates a safe and progressive loss of body weight, with virtually no risk.
Nowadays, for the soft obesity surgery, there are several surgical techniques:
- gastric banding
It is a restrictive technique, whose goal is to reduce the ability of the stomach to get faster a feeling of satiety. The only drawback is that the patient can only eat small amounts of food.
- Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch
In this case, the weight loss is given by the non-use of a large part of the small intestine. This causes a rapid and consistent weight loss.
- gastric bypass
This technique reduces the size of the stomach and, at the same time, the length of the intestine.
And after the surgery?
Anyway, after this type of surgery, it is necessary that the patient completely change his lifestyle, giving up sedentary lifestyle in favor of an active lifestyle and healthy.
The side effects consist in a high risk of alterations of the metabolism. For this reason, you need to visit an endocrinologist after surgery.
This is not an intervention with aesthetic purposes. In fact, these surgical techniques are intended to fight a very serious disease. Ideal candidates are those patients who suffer from a severe overweight with associated diseases ( diabetes , hypertension, etc.).
Moreover, it is a process that touches on various areas: it is necessary that dieticians, endocrinologists, gastroenterologists and psychologists work together for a multi-sectoral and individualized approach to each patient.
Article written with the collaboration of Dr. Diez-Caballero, general surgeon