You should be able to achieve long-term weight loss but this depends on your ability to keep to your new lifestyle. Long-term weight loss should improve most obesity-related health problems you may have.

What Does the Operation Involve?

The operation is performed under a general anaesthetic and usually takes 2 to 4 hours. Your surgeon will make a small cut on your abdomen so they can insert an instrument in your abdominal cavity to inflate it with gas (carbon dioxide). They will make  several small cuts on your abdomen so they can insert tubes (ports) into your abdomen. Your surgeon will insert surgical instruments through the ports along with a telescope so they can see inside your abdomen and perform the operation.

Your surgeon will create a tunnel behind your stomach, just below the join with your oesophagus (gullet). They will pass a stapling device through the tunnel and then staple your stomach to create a smaller stomach pouch.
Your surgeon will use another stapling device to divide your small bowel about 120 centimetres below your stomach. They will bring up the lower end (enteric limb) and attach it using staples or stitches to your new stomach pouch. The contents of your new stomach pouch will now bypass the rest of your stomach and the first part of your small bowel.

What Complications Can Happen?

General Complications of any Operation

• Pain
• Bleeding
• Infection of the surgical site (wound)
• Unsightly scarring of your skin
• Blood clot in your leg
• Blood clot in your lung
• Developing a hernia

Specific Complications of This Operation

Keyhole Surgery Complications

• Developing a hernia near one of the cuts used to insert the ports
• Damage to structures such as your bowel, bladder or blood vessels
• Surgical emphysema (crackling sensation in your skin caused by trapped carbon dioxide gas)

Gastric Bypass Complications

• Pouch stenosis, where the join between the new stomach pouch and small bowel tightens
• Staple-line bleeding
• Anastomotic leak
• Developing a hernia inside your abdomen
• Death

Long-term Problems

• Change in bowel habit or diarrhoea
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Anastomotic ulcer
• Developing gallstones

If you are severely or morbidly obese, you have a higher risk of developing serious medical problems. If a simple approach involving eating less, improving your diet and doing more exercise does not work, a gastric bypass may help you to achieve long-term weight loss. Keep this information document. Use it to help you if you need to talk to the healthcare team.

If you would like to receive more information on a Private Gastric Bypass procedure at New Victoria Hospital, call us on 020 8949 9020 or fill in our online form.