Surgical Treatment of Obesity

Can Patients Gain Weight After Surgery?

There are four reasons why patients either fail to lose enough weight or gain weight. Three are technically related to the procedure:

Pouch enlargement
Stomach enlargement
Staple line disruption

However, these three causes are, in large part, related to poor eating habits, particularly frequent or constant overeating. The fourth and final reason is overeating after the operation. If a patient frequently eats high caloric foods and drinks high caloric liquids, he or she will gain weight.
Recommended diet after surgery

The goal of the operation is to allow a morbidly obese person to undergo a significant weight loss and to give them the opportunity to maintain that weight loss through a surgical procedure that reduces the capacity and emptying of the stomach. It is hoped that through these means the individual will become motivated to undergo more physical activity and exercise, thus not only decreasing the amount of calories taken in but also increasing the amount of calories used.

Do people ever lose more weight than is safe?

Although anything is possible, patients rarely drop below their ideal body weight and in the rare person who does, it is generally for only a brief period of time. No patient, to our knowledge, has had to have the operation reversed because of too much weight loss. This includes our experience and that in the literature.

Who qualifies for surgery? >>

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