Watch Us On YouTube
Maryland Association of Justice 
Gastric Bypass Surgery Lawyer
Before considering gastric bypass surgery, you should know or your surgeon should tell you that since gastric bypass surgery is done to assist you in losing weight, you actually won't have the body parts necessary to let you eat as much as you did before you had the surgery. Your physical consumption of food will be surgically reduced and that will have nothing to do with your psychological willpower but will be a biological medically altered fact.
Not only will your body not have the organ size needed to continue eating as you have done before the surgery, but your body digestion of the food that you do eat will also change. Gastric bypass surgery is planned to help you to lose weight by surgically altering the way your stomach and small intestine digests the food that you do eat.
Following your gastric bypass surgery, you will feel full with less food because your stomach has been made smaller. When you eat, the food will not be able to go into those parts of your stomach and small intestine that were surgically altered; therefore, your digestive system will not take in all the calories from the food that you do eat.
There are two methods that surgeons use to perform gastric bypass surgery. In regular surgery where the body is cut open, your belly will be cut and your surgeon will directly touch your organs. The other method is called a laparoscopy. A laparoscopy uses a small tiny camera called a laproscope that is inserted into your belly through small incisions made on it. The laparoscope is attached to a video monitor that allows your surgeon to look into your belly. Although laparoscopy has some benefits there are also risks that you should be told before agreeing to the procedure.
If you have had abdominal surgery in the past, you may have scar tissue from that surgery, and having a laparoscopy will not be a safe procedure for you. Also, if you have heart or lung disease or weigh more that 350 pounds, a laparoscopy is not recommended because it is unsafe and complications might occur.
There are some other facts that you should know about gastric bypass surgery regardless of the procedure that you are going to take. The operation takes 4 hours and you will be under anesthesia which also has risks involved. The surgery itself might speed up your bodies generating of gallstones. You might have to have your gallbladder removed before going through bypass surgery.
Gastric bypass surgery has many risks for children because they are still growing and for people over the age of 60. If you are currently not able to walk, gastric bypass surgery increases your risk of blood clots, lung problems and other problems that bed confined patients are prone to develop. There are other risks that may happen after you have your gastric bypass. Your stomach, intestines and other organs may be damaged while undergoing bypass surgery. You might need emergency surgery if the staples used on your stomach leak. You might become psychologically depressed because of the change of the absorption of food nutrients by your digestive system.
Your surgeon should explain these risks to you.