WCBS-TV New York, 16th March 2009

In general, patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery lose unwanted weight (typically 60 to 70% of the excess weight) and stop suffering from obesity-related diseases. A few years after the procedure, though, something might change and those patients need more help.

Tammy Blakeney had a weight-loss operation ten years ago, when she was 30. She weighted 400 pounds and had problems with blood pressure and sleep apnea. What’s more, in her family there was a history of heart disease.

The surgery worked well for Tammy for both reasons, weight-loss as well as health issues. She lost 100 pounds in four months after the surgery, and after a year she lost another 100 pounds. She started feeling the difference: the sleep apnea stopped after she lost about 80 ponds, also her blood pressure came back to normal.

A few years later, though, Tammy started to feel something changed. She started putting on weight again, as she lost the feeling of being full after only a small portion of food, her body couldn’t absorb minerals and had other indestinal diseases.

The reason of the problem wasn’t that she was overeating but that her internal anatomy had changed.

“In some patients the actual outlet does enlarge. In some patients the pouch enlarges, and in some patients there’s really not a significant anatomical change, but there’s a functional change. In other words, where there used to be scar at the outlet, that scar’s gone away and there’s nothing to keep things in the pouch,” said Dr. Mitchell Roslin of Lenox Hill Hospital.

Gastric bypass surgery consists on forming a small pouch of the stomach which is attached to the small intestine so that there’s less chance to absorb calories.

There is chance that the pouch or the opening enlarges with the time. That’s when patients lose the feeling of being full so quickly and food is being transferred undigested into the intestine.

To cure this situation a lap-band, an inflatable and adjustable donut. It can constrict the pouch and the opening to start losing weight again.

“And I’m losing weight again. I’ve lost over 70 pounds. I have more energy. I’m able to work out. Good thing, it’s a good thing,” Tammy said.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.