I am considering weight loss surgery but do not know what which one
My opinion only - I am not a medical professional
- The lap band is a saline filled ring that is placed around the stomach and causes a restriction. Unfortunately it has a high failure rate, involves foreign objects to be placed inside your body and needs to be adjusted over time (more procedures) I do not recommend this at all, the process is unpleasant and gives fewer good results. Cost - about 15 thousand
- Vertical sleeve. This procedure removes the majority of the outer curve of the stomach. The entrance and the exit of the stomach is untouched and it functions as a normal stomach .. only smaller. It cannot be reversed although the stomach can be stretched over time to allow more food. Not only can you not eat as much .. but you are not as hungry due to reduced hunger hormones that were produced in your old stomach, so you don WANT to eat as much. You still have the mental desire to eat if you are addicted to food, it won't fix that. (This is the surgery that I had in March of this year, I have lost 25 pounds so far. No regrets) Cost - about 15 thousand
- Gastric bypass (RNY) creates a pouch in the top of the stomach and the intestines are re-routed to the pouch .. so the majority of the stomach is "bypassed" This procedure can be reversed. This surgery results in a restriction of food like the lap band (without the foreign objects in your body) and because part of the intestines are bypassed food is not absorbed as easily. Because the exit of the stomach is bypassed food travels directly into the intestines and to much of certain foods (sugar included) will cause "dumping" ... basically it will make you very sick. You will be miserable and you will learn not to eat that food. Cost - about 23 thousand
- Duodenal switch - The short answer is that this is a combination of the vertical sleeve and a gastric bypass. It cannot be reversed. This surgery is typically reserved for more severe cases of obesity ... since you say only 100 pounds strike this off your list. Cost - about 32 thousand
- The gastric balloon. This involved the insertion of a balloon into the stomach that is filled with saline. The balloon is removed in 6 months. It is the least invasive treatment because it is all done by going down your throat. You are not cut open .. but you will be put under anesthesia (who wants to be awake for that?) and you are released from the hospital that same day. Patients are fully recovered in about 3 days. I don't recommend this one either ... although it is minimally invasive the pay off is not that good. You can expect to lose only about 30% of your excess weight (to put it in perspective I have lost about 20% of my excess weight in 2 months with VSG) and once the balloon is removed regain is very likely because your are right back to where you were before. Cost - about 8 thousand.
Hope this helps you.
"Duodenal switch - The short answer is that this is a combination of the vertical sleeve and a gastric bypass. "
I'm sorry, but this is simply not the case. A bypass patient retains all of their stomach - it is simply stapled off to make the pouch. Also RnY's lose their pyloric valve which can have some serious consequences.
The duodenal switch patient will not have a "blind" stomach. In actuality they really do lose a majority of their stomach tissue (most of the stomach is physically removed during surgery). DS'rs keep their pyloric valve and retain a fully functioning, but smaller, stomach
There are also intestinal differences between the bypass and the DS. DS'rs MUST be uber-vigilant with their vitamins or they will quickly find themselves in a life threatening situation. They also can, and usually must, eat WAY more calories than those with other surgeries. Because of the way their intestines are changed during surgery DS'rs will have malabsorption for life and must eat accordingly. Malabsorption for RnY's eventually wears off -although we too will forever need to supplement vitamins.
just a note on the whole hunger-hormone situation: a big deal gets made on the regular around here when it comes to the "hunger hormone": ghrelin. In reality, many if not most of us didn't get to be as big as we were because we were hungry all the time and so had to eat. Personally I over ate/made bad food choices NOT because I had hunger. In fact I RARELY if ever ate due to hunger at all. I ate because I wanted to eat. Decreased ghrelin would have made no difference to me one way or the other.
