Weight Loss Programs
Weight Loss Surgery
Weight loss surgery has historically been considered the solution of last resort, however with the introduction of Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) it is now becoming the mainstream solution for sustained weight loss.
Gastric Banding
LAGB is an adjustable gastric band designed to help you lose excess weight and keep it off - for life. It is the only adjustable and reversible weight-loss procedure available in the United States and the only weight-loss surgery approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The band restricts the amount of food that can be consumed at one time. It also produces an earlier sense of fullness so that you feel satisfied with smaller portions. The procedure does not require stomach cutting and stapling or gastrointestinal re-routing to bypass normal digestion. It is a minimally-invasive laparoscopic procedure which takes less than 45 minutes and is performed on an out-patient basis allowing patients to return home the same day and resume normal activities within 24-48 hours. Due to its success in enabling sustained weight loss, LAGB is now being offered to slightly and moderately overweight people and is not just for people who are morbidly obese.
Gastric Bypass
Gastric bypass was introduced more than 35 years ago and is still widely used today. About half of gastric bypass operations are performed through open-surgery involving a long incision to the abdomen, while the other half are performed laparoscopically.
Gastric bypass procedures are used to treat morbid obesity - the severe accumulation of excess weight as fatty tissue and the health problems (co-morbidities) it causes.
A gastric bypass first divides the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much larger, lower "remnant" pouch and then re-arranges the small intestine to allow both pouches to stay connected to it. Surgeons have developed several different ways to reconnect the intestine, thus leading to several different gastric bypass techniques. Any gastric bypass technique leads to a marked reduction in the functional volume of the stomach, accompanied by an altered physiological and psychological response to food. Gastric bypass surgery changes the digestive track and is fundamentally irreversible.
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