After you have tried diets and exercises and have repeatedly failed to lose weight, it is time to try something new.
There are several surgeries that are designed to help a person lose weight and choosing the right one for yourself can be a daunting task.
A gastric bypass surgery and laparoscopic banding, popularly known as lap band, can actually lead to a significant amount of weight loss and both show similar effects.
They improve the patient's overall health by making them lose weight.
But when it comes to procedures, both are completely different.
The decision is often left to the patient and a patient needs to understand that one type of surgery may be more beneficial than the other.
A gastric bypass surgery lasts two hours and the stomach is divided into a smaller and a bigger part with a stapler and it is stitched in order to create a small upper pouch.
As a result the patient has a stomach which is the size of a golf ball.
This means that the patient would have to eat really tiny amounts of food and it is this small quantity that helps to keep the patient's weight down.
Lap banding is a shorter procedure and it offers the patients the flexibility that a bypass cannot.
In this type of surgery an external device with an inflatable balloon is placed on the inside, in the upper part of the stomach, so that it restricts the passage of food that you eat and the rest of the digestive tract.
This band can be tightened or loosened accordingly depending on the patient's needs using a simple needle or an injection in the subcutaneous region.
A person opting for surgery needs to weigh the pros and cons of both procedures before deciding.