Bariatric surgery can help you get rid of excess fat of your body and helps in leading a healthy lifestyle. This could be either achieved by stapling a small portion of your stomach or by tying the stomach with a band.

Lap band and gastric bypass are the two surgical options for severely obese patients who have been unable to control weight through diet and exercise. Deciding between the two largely depends on your personal preference and a good knowledge about both surgeries and surgical procedures.

Lap band surgery is a minimally invasive procedure requiring no stomach stapling or re-routing of internal organs The Lap band consists of a silicone ring that is placed around the top of the stomach giving it the shape of an hourglass. The resulting pouch dramatically reduces the functional capacity of the stomach. It is designed in such a way that it can be inflated or deflated at any time after operation. Lap band surgery can be adjusted, moved and has no requirement for permanent alteration to the body of the stomach or intestines, which makes it a better option to lose weight.

Gastric bypass involves creating a small pouch by dividing the stomach. The small intestine is divided and brought up to join the new stomach pouch. This allows the food go straight from the stomach pouch into the small intestine, which causes it to bypass the lower stomach and the duodenum. This reduces the amount of calories that the body absorbs.

The lap band surgery lasts around an hour and requires an overnight stay in the hospital. Gastric bypass surgery takes about four hours and you may have to stay three to five days in a hospital after surgery.

Weight loss is quicker in gastric bypass. With lap band surgery initial weight loss is slower than Gastric bypass, however over a 5-year period, weight loss outcome is similar in both.

In case of lap band, it is easy to remove the band and reverse the surgery, requiring only a laparoscopic procedure, after which the stomach usually returns to its normal pre-banded state, since it uses an inflatable saline filled strap that is wrapped around your stomach. A gastric bypass surgery can be reversed, but it should not, as it is very risky.

A gastric bypass cannot be adjusted, while a lap band can be adjusted by means of a port through the skin that the surgeon leaves just below the ribs. To tighten the lap band, the surgeons injects saline solution into it.

Gastric bypass surgery is more expensive than a Lap band surgery. While the cost of lap band surgery comes in between $15,000 to $20,000, gastric bypass costs $20,000 to $25,000.

Gather information like procedure, precautions, recovery period, reversibility and cost of both types of bariatric surgeries. This will help you make the most informed decision.

The way to a man’s heart is through the stomach they say, but little do we realize that our stomach, or rather what we put into our stomach, could be the major contributing factor in the way we lead our life. The present lifestyle consists of a rat race, where people have little or no time for themselves, leave alone their friends or family. It is time of junk food gulped down with aerated drinks, laptop jobs with little or no physical exertion, stress and undue pressure because of chasing unattainable deadlines. As a result the predominant condition is mental breakdowns, stress disorders, physical ailments like back aches and sprains and of course morbid obesity. Most of us do not even consider treatments and precaution before it is really late in the day. However, certain surgical procedures like the weight loss surgery can give you a second shot at life if you are willing to make the effort.

An individual needs to fulfill certain necessary criteria even before he can qualify for a weight loss surgery. The basic criteria is that he or she must have been overweight for five years or more and have been unable to reduce weight through normal measures like exercise or controlled diet. Also the patients under consideration must have a BMI (body mass index) of 40 or more, to qualify for a weight loss surgery. The eligible candidates need to be above 18 years of age and preferably below 55, although some doctors are known to go beyond this acceptable limit if the case so demands.

The weight loss surgery is all about how much quantity and what quality of edibles are you allowed to consume. The surgery is also known as the lap band surgery because an adjustable gastric band is placed surgically to separate the stomach into two separate compartments. The top portion is very small in size and quickly fills up after consuming a very little quantity of food. Therefore, even after you have eaten a small portion of your food you experience a feeling of fullness and you stop eating. The surgery works on this principle that once you reduce the intake of food and are eating the nutritionally balanced diet, it is easy to reduce weight and maintain your ideal weight during the entire lifetime, under regulated conditions.

A word of caution, however, is necessary before you make up your mind to opt for a weight loss surgery. It is advisable to do a complete background research about the entire procedure and the operating surgeon before you commit yourself to the task. Also, find out the postoperative care and precaution that you need to take and ensure that you can maintain the ideal weight for the rest of your life. The surgery may also have some side effects which cannot be predicted before hand and this is one of the drawbacks to an otherwise favored method of weight loss. Yet another consideration is the cost of the surgery. Therefore, make sure that you are well acquainted with all the facets of this process to ensure a smooth and healthy life in the future.

There are two different types of weight loss surgery. Those surgeries are Lap Band surgery and gastric bypass surgery. These are two of the most exciting medical advancements when it comes to the treatment of obesity and both are rather safe procedures. However, for those wishing to undergo weight loss surgery, it is important to know the differences between both the Lap Band surgery and gastric bypass surgery.

Gastric bypass

In gastric bypass, doctors staple the stomach to form the pouch that Lap Band uses a ring to do. The doctors then take a section of the intestines and attach them to the pouch, which means the remainder of the intestines and the stomach are being bypassed. In all actuality, the stomach and intestines are no longer part of the digestive tract. What results, just as in Lap Band, is a stomach that can only hold a small portion of food. This allows the patient to feel full quicker and also results in the absorption of fewer calories.

Lap Band

Lap Band involves an inflatable ring being placed around the top of the stomach, which makes it adjustable. What the ring does is reduce the patient’s appetite and initiates the weight loss process by closing off part of the stomach and making a small pouch that can only hold about 30 ml of food. This results in the patient eating less because that is all their stomach can hold.

This procedure is minimally invasive because it is done laparoscopically. That means there is no stapling and no cutting involved and the intestinal tract is not compromised as it is in gastric bypass. The feeling of fullness that is achieved with the lap band is similar to that of gastric bypass, but it is the small inflatable ring that is responsible rather than stapling of the stomach.

However, the Lap Band actually slows the digestion process, especially when the band is adjusted through the injection of a liquid solution such as saline that is injected into a port that is placed under the skin subcutaneously. The patient knows what is comfortable to them and it may take several adjustments before the patient is comfortable with the adjustment of their Lap Band.

More key differences

There are other differences between the two aside from how the procedures are done. Recovery times are different. Gastric bypass patients are able to return home in 2 to 3 days after having the surgery. However, Lap Band patients can usually go home the same day the procedure was performed. It will take gastric bypass patients 2 to 3 weeks to return to normal activities, whereas, Lap Band patients can complete recovery in 1 to 2 weeks.

Even the weight loss is experienced differently. Those who have gastric bypass experience weight loss rapidly at first, but there is no way to be sure that the weight will stay off in the long-term like with the Lap Band. The Lap Band can be adjusted to ensure the stomach only holds so much food and it also has a lesser likelihood that nutritional deficiencies will result because there is no re-routing of the intestinal tract.

The weight loss from Lap band is gradual and it is a healthy weight loss, which is effective in preventing malnutrition. The average weight loss is around 1 to 2 pounds per week, but the gastric bypass patient will lose weight a bit faster. In this case, they do need to stay up on taking supplements and meet other various dietary requirements in order to avoid malnutrition.

There is also a side effect of gastric bypass called dumping syndrome, which is when the undigested food moves into the small intestine too quickly. This can result in cramps, diarrhea, a rapid heartbeat, and a cold sweat. However, when these things occur, there is nothing that can be done in regards to reversing the surgery. The Lap Band is reversible in it can be removed and the stomach returns to its natural state.