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The stomach stapling surgery is a major surgical procedure and although the outcome may be the same or better than that of a Lap-Band procedure one must remember that the Lap Band has a lower success rate and it is also considered to be minimally invasive. This surgery is designed for those people who are considered to be morbidly obese which means that you are more than 100 ponds overweight and have a body mass index of 40 or more. Furthermore the only candidates for the stomach stapling procedure are those who have been obese for at least 5 years of which the last 6 months of this time were spent in a structure weight loss program.
For starters one must first make the initial step in contacting a bariatric surgeon in order to set up a consultation in which the surgeon will make sure you qualify. It is not uncommon for someone to start inquiring about undergoing a weight loss surgery and then having to wait a year or more just to schedule the surgery. This is because even though many states require insurance companies to cover the weight loss surgery if the patient qualifies under the National Institute of Health’s criteria for the procedure the insurance companies will do what ever they can to stall the approval or to find a way to deny it completely.
Once the procedure actually starts the patient will be placed under general anesthesia and the surgeon will make a series of incisions which are about 1 centimeter in length. From there the surgeon will then bisect the stomach into two parts one of which will go unused and the other will make up the new stomach area. After accomplishing this the surgeon will then make an incision about 2 centimeters long towards the top of the stomach along the bisecting line in order to place the gastric band around the upper portion of the side of the stomach that will be used.
What this does is not only restricts the flow of food through the stomach by the means of the band but at the same time it slows down the absorption of the nutrients due to the smaller cavity space left in the stomach. Once all this is completed the surgeon will then close you up and send you to the recovery room where you will await you extended stay at the hospital for observed recovery. |
