Choosing Lap Band Bariatric Surgery DC

These days, it seems like more and more people are choosing some kind of medical assistance when they want to lose weight.  People who have a significant amount of weight to lose are medically termed as obese.  These folks may become candidates for some type of surgical intervention.  Bariatric Surgery DC is intended for patients who have not been able to lose weight by consistently reducing food intake and increasing exercise.

Lap Band Bariatric Surgery Washington DC

There are a few different types of weight loss surgery DC available.  Surgery becomes a consideration for individuals who are morbidly obese based on their body mass index (BMI), or who have a significant amount of weight to lose in combination with another potentially severe health problem like diabetes, arthritis, hypertension and/or sleep apnea.  The type of surgery recommended or chosen will depend on many varied factors in each individual case, and on the preference of the patient, and possibly the parameters of their insurance coverage.

Lap banding is the most frequently performed surgery of this type.  During this procedure, the surgeon places an adjustable band around the top of the patient's stomach.  A port is also installed right under the skin of the stomach, with a tube connecting the band to the port.  Fluid can be injected into the port in order to tighten the lap band.  This reduces the amount of food that will fit in the stomach and makes the patient feel fuller faster.  When fluid is removed from the lap band, the stomach capacity returns to normal.  This procedure is sometimes also called laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.

While results from lap band surgery vary, many patients do lose up to half of their body weight with consistent aftercare.  This is considered to be the "simplest" of the surgeries for weight loss; the level of complication is very low.  The most frequently reported side effects are relatively mild, for example, acid reflux.  In a few cases, the patient cannot tolerate the presence of the band and it has to be removed.  The lap band surgery may require somewhat frequent follow-up visits to a healthcare provider for adjustments to the amount of fluid in the lap band.

Hyperlipidemia and Vein Surgery DC

Sometimes, medical terms can be difficult to understand and even confusing.  Hyperlipidemia is one such term.  To make things simpler, it is the medical term that refers to having elevated cholesterol levels.  Pretty much everyone has heard of high cholesterol.  Most primary care doctors test their patients for high cholesterol regularly because it can be detected with a simple blood screening.  To make the issue of high cholesterol even more confusing, patients with consistently elevated numbers may be referred to a Vein surgery DC practice for maintenance of the condition.  High cholesterol is not, however, a condition that will require an actual vascular surgery DC procedure.

Hyperlipidemia and the Interventional Cardiologist

So, hyperlipidemia is a complicated name for disorders that result in elevated levels of fats, cholesterol and triglycerides circulating in the blood stream.  In and of itself, this condition does not pose a real threat to the patient.  But, in the long term, the lipids can enter the arterial walls and cause structural changes to the arteries, leading to possible strokes, heart attacks and amputations.  People who have co-existing diagnoses such as diabetes and those who smoke are at a greater risk for complications from hyperlipidemia.

The interventional cardiologist DC can help the patient with consistently elevated lipid profiles in a few different ways.

• Lifestyle changes are the first line of treatment for elevated lipid levels.  Patients may be asked to lose a certain amount of weight, follow a low-fat diet, and increase the amount of cardiovascular exercise they are doing each week.  Sometimes this is enough to reduce elevated numbers.
• Statins are a class of medication that are often very effective in reducing lipid levels when lifestyle changes alone are not completely effective.  Because so much of a patient's lipid profile depends on genetics, it is not unusual for medication to be a necessary part of treatment.
• One of the risks of taking Statins is that they can induce diabetes.  Individuals with elevated lipid panels who already have diabetes, or who develop it as a result of Statin usage, will benefit from meeting with and endocrinologist and dietitian.

Sleeve Gastrectomy Bariatric Surgery Washington DC

Surgical procedures to help people who are very overweight or obese are very popular these days.  Approximately 200,000 total of the different varieties of bariatric surgery Washington DC are performed in the United States every year.  Patients considering this type of treatment for their weight issues will have to choose between the gastric lap band, a gastric bypass, and the sleeve gastrectomy.  This short article is intended to provide an introduction to the sleeve gastrectomy.

Bariatric Surgery DC:  Sleeve Gastrectomy

This operation physically removes most of the stomach.  Therefore, it is not reversible like lap banding.  After the largest portion of the stomach is removed, the remaining porting is formed into a tube shape that holds only a small amount of food.  This part of the stomach is attached to the very beginning of the small intestine, which is called the duodenum.  Because this surgery does not remove any of the small intestine, food is digested more normally, eliminating the side effect of "dumping syndrome" which sometimes occurs with gastric bypass surgery (because of the removal of the duodenum).

Bariatric surgery DC for the sleeve gastrectomy include many advantages.

• Because of the reduction in the size of the stomach, the patient feels full much sooner and is able to eat a much smaller quantity of food.  The reduction in the number of calories consumed leads to weight loss.
• The hormones that signal feelings of hunger and fullness are produced by the portion of the stomach that is removed.  In the absence of these hormones, the patient will not usually feel hungry.  They will naturally consume less food.
• The portion of the stomach that is removed also produces some of the hormones that control blood sugar.  As a result, this surgery sometimes helps in controlling type 2 diabetes.
• Most patients report a loss of half to three-quarters of their extra weight during the first year or two after surgery.  Such a drastic weight loss can greatly improve chronic health conditions such as arthritis, high blood pressure, and other cardiac conditions.