Types of Weight Loss Surgery Explained by Bariatric Surgeon in Cancun

“Weight loss has a variety of procedures and a range of candidates. Some procedures are not for BMIs below 35 but we have other options for that.

We can divide bariatric procedures in two big scenarios -- restrictive procedure that includes the Gastric Balloon and the Gastric Sleeve.

Back in the days, probably 5-7 years ago, we did another restrictive procedure called a gastric lap band. Nowadays, that procedure is not prescribed. There are still some places especially in the United States doing lap band for low BMIs of 30 to 35.

But, the problem is, the results show that patients regain weight and also eventually after 5-10 years, they need the band to get removed. Now, we mostly do gastric balloon for low BMIs or gastric sleeve as a restrictive procedure.

What is a restrictive procedure? We make a patient eat less. In the gastric balloon, by placing the device, a balloon, that maybe fills up to 600 cc of liquid and that will cover around 50% of your natural stomach and you will be able to eat less.

With gastric sleeve, what we do is, we staple and cut between 75-80% of your stomach and while removing that part of the stomach, we also remove, on the fundus of the stomach, a hormone called ghrelin. The hormone ghrelin is hormone of hunger, so patients can eat only 20 to 25% of what they usually could eat but also they would not be hungry because we remove that hormone.

The other group of bariatric surgeries is the mixed procedures. Why are they called mixed? Because they have mild restrictions and they also have malabsorption. Those are the gastric bypasses. There are many types of gastric bypasses but they mostly work the same.

We are going to do a new pouch, a new stomach and it is going to be between 15-20% of your natural stomach. But, we are going to bypass between 1.50 or even 3 meters of small bowel to attach it to your new pouch, so that now you are going to eat less but also what you eat would not be able to absorb in the small bowel.

So, you would be able to absorb carbs and bad things for your weight. But, we need to make sure that while we bypass the small bowel, you do not need that vitamin deficiency and that is why there are different types of gastric bypasses. There is a gastric bypass called Roux-en-Y that you bypass between 1 and 1.50 meters of small bowel. But, you do another attachment below, like a Y, to make sure that all nutrients get absorbed.

Another gastric bypass that nowadays is getting very trendy because it has excellent results, especially the long term weight loss and controlling diabetes and high blood pressure is the mini gastric bypass also known as one anastomosis bypass.

In that bypass what we do is we create a new pouch, as I was telling you, but instead of bypassing 1.5 meter, we bypass three meters.

So, patients have less absorption but we have to make sure that there are vitamin deficiencies and thankfully there are not any. So, we could tell those are the two big groups of bariatric surgery:

• The Restrictive procedure and
• The Malabsorptive procedures”

Dr. Perez has successfully performed over 3,000 bariatric surgeries with zero rates of complication. He is invited on a regular basis to teach bariatric surgery programs all over the countryside.

He is also a regular participant at the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) world congresses held globally.

Evangelynn from Tennessee, USA is one of the many patients of Dr. Perez. Read her review on sleeve gastrectomy in Cancun, Mexico here.