How To Shed The Extra Fat!

In a recent article by Dr. Zaqui Ladha (soon to join Royal Bahrain Hospital as a Visiting Consultant General & Laparoscopic Surgeon), Dr. Zaqui has made it clear that the rise of obesity in Bahrain is becoming a health problem for many, and an option is obesity surgery.

However, despite the fact that obesity surgery is something everyone is familiar with, many do not know that obesity surgery comes in different types. There are two main types of obesity surgery: restrictive and combined restrictive and malabsorptive.

Restrictive surgery uses bands to create food intake restriction. The bands or staples are surgically placed near the top of the stomach to section off a small portion that is often called a stomach pouch. A small outlet is left at the bottom of the stomach pouch. 

Patients who have gone through restrictive surgery must learn to eat smaller amounts of food at one time, to chew their food well and to eat slowly. Failure to adjust eating habits may inhibit weight loss.

One more restrictive procedure which is getting very popular is the sleeve gastrectomy, where the stomach is reduced to a small tube, which could be a step procedure to a bypass, or a procedure by itself.

The combined restrictive and malabsorptive surgery is a combination of restrictive surgery (stomach pouch) with bypass (malabsorptive surgery), in which the stomach is connected to the small intestine, bypassing the duodenum and part of the jejunum.

The results have been very encouraging, especially with the by-pass procedures. Many of the patients who have undergone a gastric banding have lost around 30 kg, have changed their waist size from a 22 to a 14, some of them have shaped their body by plastic surgery, and look really good. The patients who have done a gastric by-pass or a sleeve gastrectomy have lost much more weight, and still continue losing it. The weight loss is above 40 kg in most cases, and still going down. One of the patient said that if she had known this result, she would have done her by-pass years ago, and so would be healthy earlier!

Dr. Zaqui Ladha will be joining Royal Bahrain Hospital soon as a Visiting Consultant General & Laparoscopic Surgeon. To book your appointment in advance, call 17246800 or visit www.royalbahrainhospital.com for more information..