Review of Outcomes of Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass and Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding - Book Report/Review Example

Nguyen, Nam Q., et al. "Outcomes of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding." World journal of gastroenterology: WJG 19.36 (2013): 6035. The poor eating habits prevalent within the population are regarded as one of the major factors for the increasing number of obese people. The side effects associated with excessive body fat are diverse nature, as they can affect an individual’s physiology as well as his psyche. Whether a person is obese or not is determined by calculating body mass index (BMI), if the value of BMI crosses 30 then a person is considered to be outrageously overweight.

The National Health Institute (USA) recommends bariatric surgery to people with severe obesity. Usually individuals having body mass index value of 40 or more recommended to undergo bariatric procedures, in some cases patients with BMI of 35 are also asked to go through bariatric surgeries. Nguyen et al. (6035) have drawn comparison between the outcomes of two of the most common bariatric procedures that are in practice. These procedures include Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and adjustable gastric band surgery.

The former procedure is highly invasive, it is expensive, and it is more efficient for weight loss; while the latter is less invasive, relatively cheap, and less effective. In Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, stomach is divided into two pouches and is separated, the smaller pouch is directly connected to the small intestine, and this reduces the size of the stomach. While in case of lap-band surgery an adjustable band is introduced around the stomach which is inflated with saline solution, the tightening of the band divides the stomach into pouches.

The data obtained for the outcome or success rate for both the procedures (i.e. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and Lap-band surgery), suggest that in patients undergoing bypass show greater rate of weight loss as compared to those who have lap-bands installed. Moreover, people with diabetes are recommended to have bariatric bypass, rather than lap-band surgery because results show lower fasting blood glucose levels, total cholesterol and triglyceride in individuals who opt for Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (Nguyen et al., 6035). Further, there is great deal of loss in the secretion hunger stimulating hormones in case Roux-en-Y gastric bypass than compared to lap-band (Nguyen et al., 6035). Another discriminating outcome between the two bariatric procedures is that lap-band surgery shows gender biased results, as males are recorded to lose weight 3 times faster than females; this is not the case with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

The time spent by patients in hospital for Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is usually 10-14 days, after which they have to visit the doctor less often, however, in case of lap-band surgery, the patients are discharged within 24-48 hours after the procedure, but they need to visit the doctor more often for band adjustment.