Look to Health

About Look to Health What is Obesity (Bariatric) and Diabetes (Metabolic) Surgery? The term “bariatric” derives from the Greek work “Baros” that means weight, and since it has historically been used to define the surgeries that aim slimming the overweight and obese patients, it implies the gastroeintestinal surgeries that intends losing weight. It is known that such gastrointestinal surgeries not only reduce body weight, but they are decrease the mortality rate in type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. The experimental studies conducted on rats and the human studies show that metabolic effects of this type of surgical procedures emerge before the loss of weight is evident and that recovery is achieved in diabetes. Bariatric surgery, also called obesity surgery, should also be considered as metabolic surgery, as it also treats the diseases that associate with the obesity (Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, Dyslipidemia etc.). Bariatric and metabolic surgery methods broadly divide into 3 classes. 1.Restrictive Methods 2. Combined restrictive and malabsorptive methods 3. Pure malabsorptive methods Among the principal restrictive methods are gastric band and sleeve gastrectomy. Intra-gastric balloon is not a surgical method and it is another restrictive method, as a balloon is placed in the gastric lumen with endoscopic method. The principal example of the combined restrictive and malabsorptive methods is the gastric bypass. Gastric bypass surgeries cover Roux-n-Y gastric bypass, duodenal switch, IT or mini bypass. The most popular one of the pure malabsorptive procedures is biliopancreatic diversion that is usually performed for super morbid obese patients especially with an eating disorder, who eat too much. Moreover, DJB and DIB also fall into the group of malabsorptive methods. Prof. Aziz Sümer, M.D.