We want you to be as educated as possible about your weight loss surgery options and provide you with ongoing care.
The team at the Surgical Weight Loss Centre is dedicated to informing our Gold Coast patients of all aspects of their treatment. We understand more than anyone what a big decision it can be to elect for weight loss surgery and a large part of that understanding is translated into a tailored treatment plan that meets your unique requirements and expectations.
Any successful weight loss surgery begins before a single incision is made by our surgeons and selecting the correct procedure is key to your weight loss journey. Your safety and your peace of mind are just as important to us and we will guide you through every single step of the process professionally and compassionately. The battle against obesity can be one fraught with emotionally challenging moments and we want to be able to help you navigate those to the best of our ability. Dr Jordaan specialises in upper gastrointestinal surgery and has more than 25 years of experience in helping patients overcome their weight loss concerns. Behind him stands an excellent team of multidisciplinary individuals that are each as passionate as the next member about achieving your weight loss goals.
Gastric Bypass Vs Gastric Band Surgery
Gastric bypass surgery as a weight loss treatment is a laparoscopic or ‘keyhole’ surgery technique that changes the route that your food takes when it is moving from the stomach to the small bowel. By manipulating this course, we can create a smaller pouch of stomach and divert food from the first part of your small bowel. Gastric bypass surgery is restrictive and malabsorptive which means that it restricts the amount of food it takes to make you feel full, as well as reducing the amount of nutrients and calories absorbed during digestion by altering the gut hormones that control your appetite.
Weight loss surgery that employs the gastric banding technique involves the placing of a band around the top of your stomach and the insertion of an access port deep into the skin that is then connects to this band. This is an ongoing weight loss procedure and 6 weeks after your initial surgery, your gastric band will be adjusted in 2-4 week intervals until the ideal restriction level has been reached.
The Benefits Of Weight Loss Surgery
Much the same as gastric bypass surgery, gastric band surgery allows you to eat much less by controlling your portions and their ability to make you feel full while still being able to savour your meal. It also helps to control the hunger that you experience in-between meals. Patients that elect for gastric band surgery do so for a number of reasons. Firstly, gastric band surgery is very safe and is, in fact, much safer than other forms of weight loss surgery. It is also popular because the band itself is removable and doesn’t involve any stapling of the stomach or indeed the bypassing of any part of your intestine. The benefits of a gastric bypass are slightly more nuanced as there are 2 forms, the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and the ‘mini’ gastric bypass (MGB). Both of them are keyhole surgeries.
The RYGB is one of the most effective weight loss procedures and patients will more often than not lose more weight after this than a gastric band and as much as a sleeve gastrectomy. The mini gastric bypass benefits are typified by a few things. The reduced complexity of this weight loss surgery means there is far less room for potential complications and an anastomosis leak. This also means that the singular anastomosis only has one site for a potential herniation of the bowel. The operating time on an MGB is shorter and its possible that it may be easier to reverse the procedure if needs be.
To find out more about our weight loss surgery options, or to make an appointment to come in and see us, please click here.