Rafał Mulek

Bariatric surgery

 

It is no exaggeration to say that obesity is a real scourge of the 20th and 21st centuries. The figures presented by the WHO are depressing.

 

10 facts about obesity - by WHO

 

If you wanted to answer in one sentence, what does a surgeon treating patients with obesity do, it would be no exaggeration to say that he changes people's lives.

 

It will also be no exaggeration to say that bariatric surgery is currently the only treatment method that gives patients a chance to cure their obesity.

 

Thanks to the surgical treatment of obesity, patients often reduce their weight by several dozen kilograms, which, apart from the purely physical consequences of weight reduction, is also associated with the complete cure of diseases associated with obesity, such as diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea or hypercholesterolemia. With a decrease in weight, the risk of cancer is also reduced, fertility improves, and, which is certainly the least surprising, pain associated with excessive load on all joints subsides.

 

Since diabetes and hypertension are common causes of heart attacks and strokes, curing these diseases also indirectly translates into extending the lives of patients undergoing surgical treatment. The same applies to the length of life associated with the risk of developing cancer.

 

Currently, all bariatric surgeries are performed laparoscopically, which is crucial for the speed of recovery after surgery. Patients are able to leave the hospital bed on their own on the second day after the procedure, and usually return home the following day.

 

The goal of bariatric surgery is to modify the gastrointestinal tract in such a way that the patient consumes less calories than before and, perhaps even more importantly, does not feel discomfort because of it. The most amazing, however, is the impact of bariatric surgery on the hormonal mechanisms of the digestive tract. As a result, in patients suffering from diabetes, from the first days after the operation, we observe the normalization of glucose levels in the blood, and in the next few months or even weeks, we observe complete remission of the disease, freeing the patient from many drugs taken so far, as well as stopping the destructive impact of diabetes on the patient's body. among other reasons, we operate on lighter and lighter patients with diabetes, and the term "bariatric surgery" is increasingly replaced by the term "metabolic surgery".

 

The hospital stay usually lasts a few days. The patient is operated on the second day after admission. Already on the second day after the operation, he begins to take liquids and mushy foods, and usually returns home the next day.

 

In the first year after the operation, check-ups take place at three-monthly intervals, in subsequent years once every six months.

 

In our surgical dossier, we currently mainly use three surgical methods:

 

1) sleeve gastrectomy (by patients and surgeons often called "sliwa" from the English name "sleeve gastrectomy")

2) gastric bypass in short called "bypass"

3) mini gastric bypass, which is "mini" in name only

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We also help people who, for various reasons, need surgical intervention after previous bariatric surgeries

 

If you are interested in the surgical treatment of obesity, I cordially invite you for a consultation.