Summit Medical Center - Surgical Treatment Center Oklahoma City OK

There are more options than ever for bariatric surgery at our Oklahoma City medical center. However, many people aren't sure how it works or if it is for them. There are a few ways to determine whether bariatric surgery is right for you – talking to your doctor being the foremost. However, in the short term, here are five basics that you should know about the procedure that will help you make a decision:

1.  Can it help you lose weight?

Bariatric surgery refers to a number of different surgical procedures and all of them help with weight loss, changing your body shape or both. However, not everyone who wants to lose weight is a candidate for bariatric surgery. These procedures are generally recommended for weight loss only when other methods, such as diet and exercise, have failed. Additionally, bariatric surgery is mostly used for individuals who are extremely overweight—particularly if their weight is contributing to health problems in their life.

2.  Can it improve your life?

Bariatric surgery is most often recommended to help address specific health problems. In particular, if extreme obesity is contributing to health conditions such as heart disease, bariatric procedures can not only take off the weight, but alleviate these other conditions. An individual with heart disease, for example, is at much higher risk of heart attack if they are significantly overweight. Bariatric surgery can help patients manage a variety of conditions, including mobility issues and arthritis.

3.  How it's done

While there are many types of bariatric procedures, all involve removing or altering part of the digestive tract in some way. This can include removing part of the stomach or intestine, which reduces the amount of calories you can absorb from food, or controlling the size of the stomach or intestine with a "band" so that you feel full faster, or both. The surgeries aim to reduce the total amount of energy you take in from food, so that your body loses weight.

4.  What to expect after

Some bariatric surgeries are a permanent choice and cannot be undone; others, such as the lap band, can be removed with another surgery. None of these procedures are intended as short-term solutions, however. You will need to maintain a special diet after your surgery and stick with it. In the initial months after the surgery, this diet is very strict but you will have more options after about a year; nonetheless, you will always need to be very careful to eat small quantities and to exclude certain types of food. This is a matter of medical necessity – not just a recommendation.

5.  Will the weight stay off?

After the surgery you will probably lose weight at a dramatic pace. Eventually, your weight will stabilize and you may regain a small part of the weight you lost; however, if you follow all of the dietary requirements, you should keep the majority of the weight off long-term.

For more information on weight loss surgery at Summit Medical Center, you can talk to either of our excellent bariatric surgeons, Toby Broussard, MD, and Gregory F. Walton, MD. Contact us to set up a consultation today!