What is a gastric bypass surgery?

If you are more than 80 pounds overweight for a woman or 100 pounds overweight for a man, your doctor may recommend weight loss surgery.  Also, if you are overweight but not to that extreme, your doctor may suggest weight loss surgery if you have obstructive sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease.

Gastric bypass surgery (Roux-en-Y gastric bypass), also called bariatric surgery, is the most common type of weight loss surgery and makes up 80 percent of all weight loss surgeries in the US today.  Unlike banding surgeries (Lapband), gastric bypass is an irreversible procedure.  With gastric bypass surgery, the surgeon divides the stomach into two sections, sealing the upper part from the lower part. When you eat after the surgery, food will go from the smaller upper section of the stomach (called the pouch) directly to the small intestine.