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Surgical Interventions for Weight Loss

In 1991, an NIH consensus conference stated that "Only surgery has proven effective over the long term for most patients with clinically severe obesity."

Surgery for clinically severe obesity has been endorsed by several leading medical organizations:  

The National Institutes of Health

The American Medical Association

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

American Association of Family Practitioners

Laparoscopic Surgery (Minimally Invasive Surgery)

In minimally invasive, or laparoscopic, surgery, the surgeon uses five or six small incisions (each 1/4 and 1/2 inch long) to access the stomach and intestines. The laparoscope is a probe-like tool with a video camera attached. The surgeon inserts the laparoscope through the incisions and it provides a magnified view of the patient's organs on a television monitor.

Gas is inserted to expand the abdomen and the entire operation is performed inside the abdomen. Surgeons are constantly finding ways to use ever-smaller incisions, lower operative risk, reduce postoperative pain, and shorten hospital stays. Minimally invasive surgical techniques have cut recovery times for many operations from weeks to days.

Open vs. Laparoscopic Surgical Procedures

Once the only surgical method available, open surgery requires the surgeon to make a 10- to 12-inch incision through which the stomach and intestines can be accessed. Once that incision is open, the surgeon performs a restriction or gastric bypass operation. This is not the only option available today. Laparoscopic surgery offers patients several benefits.                                

Open Surgery                 

• Increased post-op pain and typically longer hospitalizations
• Increased incidence of wound complications such as infections, hernias, and seromas
• Patients typically return to work in 4-8 weeks

Laparoscopic Surgery

• Less post-op pain and patients are typically mobile much earlier than with open surgery
• Significantly reduced incidence of wound complications
• Minimal hospitalization of 1-2 days
• Patients typically return to work in 1-2 weeks

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