Gastric bypass surgery, also called stomach bypass surgery, is one of the operations which is made to help obese people lose weight. It helps reducing excessive weight at 60-80% rate, and this operation is made with laparoscopic in many cases. Using laparoscopy helps easing the pain related to the surgical operation. It also makes recovery faster. This also decreases the hospitalization period. In order to increase the chance of losing kilograms after leaving from the hospital and decrease the postoperative complications, the patient needs to follow the given suggestions and instructions.

This operation generally continues for 1-1.5 hours. While the gastric bypass operation is made, the surgeon follows the steps given below:
• General anesthesia is applied to the patient, so he sleeps during the operation and does not feel anything.
• The physician divides the stomach into two pieces as its upper part is smaller and the lower is larger. Eaten food goes to the upper side of the stomach, which can contain 28 grams food or 30 ml beverage. This situation will force the individual to eat less, and so he loses weight because the purpose of this step is to shrink the stomach.
• The physician connects the small part of the stomach, named the gastric sac, through a small hole in the small intestine area, and this makes the eaten food go from the upper part of the stomach to the small intestine. This step is called Bypass, and its purpose is to reduce the calorie amount that the body takes. The gastric bypass can be made with open surgery or laparoscopy. In case of open surgery, the physician makes a large cut to open the abdomen. However, with the laparoscopy method, the physician uses a small camera which allows to see inside the abdomen.

Actually, this operation cannot be made to everyone and there must be some conditions, including those given below, in application:
• Despite a healthy diet and exercise, all previous attempts to lose weight must have been unsuccessful.
• The body weight index must be 40 or above
• Together with having a body weight index at 35 or above, the individual must be suffering from other health problems like high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes or sleep apnea.
• A man’s weight must be 45 kg more or less than the ideal weight or a woman’s must be 36 kg more or less than the ideal.

Although this operation is effective in losing weight, it can cause some damages and complications, including the following:
• . Occurrence of dumping syndrome; in this situation, the symptoms like sweating, nausea, diarrhea, fainting, exhaustion occur after eating because food moves from the stomach to the small intestine rapidly.
• Enlargement of the stomach sac: In time, the stomach can mostly enlarge by returning to its original size.
• Narrowness of the hole opened between the stomach and intestine and Stoma Stenosis: The openness between the upper part of the stomach and small intestine can get narrower and this situation can be followed by the symptoms like reflux, vomiting and anorexia. The patient may need an operation to expand the hole.
• Gallbladder stones: It can be a result of losing weight rapidly. In order to prevent this situation, medicines are used.
• Deficiency of some nutrition: The body’s ability to intake food decreases, and the individual becomes weaker before the deficiency of vitamins, minerals and other nutrition.

A set of procedures, some of them are given below, are taken into consideration before starting this process.
• The physician will define the operation, which the patient will go through, and provide enough opportunity to ask questions and take information about this operation.
• The individual is asked to sign a medical approval form which allows the operation to be made. Duly diligence must be shown to read the form carefully and ask questions about unclear or incomprehensible points.
• In order to be ensure that the patient’s health is good, a complete physical examination is made. The complete medical history of the patient is also examined, and the patient is asked to go for other tests such as diagnostic tests or blood tests. Pregnancy test is made in order to be sure that a female patient is not pregnant. In the first following year after the operation, female patients are warned that they cannot get pregnant because rapid weight loss can be dangerous for the life and safety of the fetus.
• Before the operation, the patient needs to be hungry for eight hours.
• Tell your physician the medicines, including herbal supplements, which you are taking; if you have an allergic reaction to a specific matter or medicine; or history of bleeding disorders.
• Few weeks before the operation, it is necessary that the patient needs to exercise and change his diet.