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Surgical Weight Loss

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The Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital (BAACH) is committed to your care. Surgical weight reduction is a major decision and should not be taken lightly.

2. Surgery and Weight Loss:
Obesity surgery helps you lose weight by changing the way your body digests and absorbs food. Your body digests food to break down what you eat into small pieces of nutrients. When the pieces are small enough, the cells of your body absorb the nutrients to give you energy.
Normally, digestion and absorption begin in the stomach, continue through the small intestine and end in the large intestine, which digests and absorbs what it can and eliminates the rest as waste. Obesity surgery involves making changes to the stomach and/or small intestine.

3. There are two main types of obesity surgery;
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A small stomach pouch is created, and a Y-shaped connection is made to the mid-small intestine (jejunum) for malabsorption. The longer the segment of small intestine bypassed, the greater the malabsorption and the greater the weight loss.
Surgery time: 1.5-2 hours
Hospital stay: 2-3 days
Recovery time: approximately 3-4 weeks
Expect to lose 60-80% of excess body weight over 12-18 months

4. Possible side effects following bariatric surgery:
Nausea and vomiting
Obstruction of stomach or intestine
Acid reflux or ulcers
Malnutrition
Constipation
Hair loss
Dumping syndrome – in which food moves too quickly through the small intestine and can cause nausea, weakness, sweating, faintness, and sometimes diarrhea after eating. There can be an inability to eat sweets without severe weakness and sweating.

5. After Surgery:
Lifestyle adjustments – Lifelong use of nutritional supplements such as vitamins, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and calcium may be necessary.
Surgical follow-up: Physical, nutritional, and metabolic counseling are needed to prevent nutritional deficiencies.

6. Point of Contact for this information

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