Rafał Mulek

According to the "All of a sudden, what the hell" principle, hospital stay when a patient is undergoing surgery must last for several days. Most often it looks like this: Day one - the day of admission to the hospital. The party usually takes place around noon. The patient has blood drawn for tests that are necessary before surgery. He meets with the anesthesiologist as well as the surgeon who will operate on the patient the next day. This is the time to ask all unanswered questions and agree to surgery. Day two - for the so-called surgeon day zero - on this day the patient is operated. We've been operating since morning. Unfortunately, not everyone is operated on at the same time; therefore, some of you will be stressed before your operation only for a moment, in the morning, and some a bit longer. After the operation, the patient is usually transferred to the recovery room, where he stays until the next day in the morning. Day three - the first postoperative day - on this day, in the morning, the patient has blood drawn again for tests. This allows for a more complete assessment of the patient's condition after surgery. After a positive assessment by the surgeon, with normal blood tests, the patient can start taking oral water on this day. On this day, patients can easily leave their own bed and walk around the hospital corridors, and in nice weather, also in the green areas in front of the hospital. Day four - the second postoperative day - similarly to the day before, blood is taken for tests. After a medical examination and with normal blood tests, the patient begins oral nutrition. The first one goes - natural yoghurt!!! Patients say it's YUM;) This day is discharge day for some of our patients. After the last inspection of the wounds and making sure that the patient can cope independently without medical and nursing care, patients are discharged from the hospital to go home. Day five - the third postoperative day - on this day, practically 100% of bariatric patients demand to leave the hospital, as in the absence of any significant ailments, they have no doubts that their further stay in the hospital ward , is more of a hotel than a therapeutic stay.

There is no easy way to answer this question. Just as one haircut does not suit all people, it is not possible to perform the same surgery on all obese people. There are many reasons for this. Gender, age, concomitant diseases, past surgeries, patient's eating habits, etc. are decisive. Each time, the surgeon tries to make the selected operation ideally suited to the patient. This is by no means an easy choice, because the number of variables can sometimes be very long. We try, of course, to take into account the preferences of the patients themselves, because it is very important that the patient "believes" in their operation. It is also important to emphasize that, first of all, we do not perform operations that do not work, but to put the problem on the other hand - there is no perfect operation, which strongly determined the patient couldn't beat.

It is said that "man shoots and God carries bullets", but it is definitely better if pregnancy, also after bariatric surgery, is planned. Ideally, a patient after bariatric surgery should become pregnant not earlier than 2 yearsafter surgery, and the minimum period between surgery and conception is twelve months. In the first year after surgery, the body goes through something like a "metabolic storm". During this period, deficits in both vitamins and micro and macro elements may appear. From the point of view of the developing pregnancy, this is an extremely unfavorable situation.

If a patient suffers from gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, i.e. has, colloquially speaking, heartburn, gastric bypass surgery is the surgery of choice. We definitely do not recommend in this situation gastrectomy, because after this operation one of the more common side effects is the development or persistence of pre-existing gastroesophageal reflux disease. Loss of a lot of body weight after surgery definitely does not compensate for reflux symptoms, which can effectively make everyday life of a slim patient difficult.

Everyone wants to look pretty! On the other hand, "what goes around comes around"! In the first year after bariatric surgery, the patient goes through a physiologically difficult period. He is exposed, even when he feels very well, to protein and vitamin deficiencies, as well as micro and macro elements. For this reason, performing major surgical procedures, and corrective surgeries of the body's integuments are definitely such, is dangerous during this period. The risk of postoperative wound infection and broadly understood problems with the healing of extensive wounds is much higher. The second reason not to rush has to do with weight loss during this period. There is no point in having corrective surgery if your weight continues to decrease over the next few months after surgery. In summary: no earlier than 1 year after bariatric surgery and at least 3 months of weight stabilization.

Treatment costs vary depending on the operation that the Patient has performed. Sleeve gastrectomy surgery - PLN 20,000, gastric bypass surgery - PLN 20,000, mini gastric bypass surgery - PLN 20,000, revision surgery (surgery performed after previously performed bariatric surgeries) so-called. re-do operation - PLN 24,000. The given prices apply to both surgical treatment as well as the entire stay and hospital care. The diagnostic and consultation package preceding surgical treatment costs PLN 2,500. The diagnostic package in the hospital is not mandatory and the patient has the right to perform diagnostics outside the hospital.

Safer - maybe yes or better - I don't think so. Surely you have wondered more than once why treatment with diet alone in the case of obesity does not work. Well, mainly because even the best diet, applied as scrupulously, is eventually abandoned, leaving the patient with previous habits and mistakes, leading to weight gain again. The balloon is very similar. As long as it is in the stomach, it reduces the active volume of the stomach, allowing less food to be taken in until it is removed. Immediately afterwards, the patient is left alone with "his" original stomach volume, and the only weapon left to him is willpower again. Therefore, the treatment of obesity with a gastric balloon makes sense only in certain specific situations and each time it is treated as a preliminary stage before undertaking the final surgical treatment. We most often resort to gastric balloon treatment either in very obese patients or in very sick patients, in whom the risk of surgical treatment is initially too high. Thanks to the use of balloon therapy, we are able to reduce the weight of these patients, as well as, thanks to weight reduction, to better control the diseases associated with obesity. Performing the operation after the initial weight reduction is in such a situation a natural, next stage of comprehensive obesity treatment. It is a mistake to deploy a balloon in patients with an average body weight and body mass index (less than 50) for obese patients, because such patients can most often be successfully operated on without intermediate steps. It should be remembered that after 6 months of balloon therapy, the stomach wall is always excessively thickened, which increases the risk of complications after subsequent surgical treatment. The profit from balloon therapy should therefore be greater than the risk of complications resulting from its use. To sum up: the gastric balloon can be a great method of initial treatment of obesity, but most often it is not the final one.

Definitely, the cost associated with bariatric surgery is the need to take vitamins and micro and macro elements, such as, among others, for life. iron. Vitamins are substances that are necessary to maintain proper health. Unfortunately, our body cannot synthesize them on its own. Therefore, it is necessary to provide them with food. The right amount of vitamins goes to our body if we eat healthy and regularly. Unfortunately, after bariatric treatment, the amount of food taken by the patient is so small that it is impossible to provide the necessary amount of vitamins in a small volume of food eaten. It is therefore necessary to supplement vitamins in the form of vitamin preparations. Only in this way is it possible to provide the right amount of vitamins to our body.