What are the advantages and disadvantages of roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery?
The advantages of having the roux-en-Y gastric bypass is the weight loss occurs over the first nine, 12, 18 months; whereas restrictor procedures, mostly the adjustable band, the weight loss is 18 months to 36 months. So patients may say, "I want to lose the weight faster." The patient who is diabetic seems to have a more successful relief of their diabetes with gastric bypass; again, something that's being worked out, scientifically, why that would be. Some of the disadvantages of the bypass is the higher complication rate, malabsorption of protein, which doesn't happen frequently if we're using the proximal gastric bypass. It happens more frequently with the distal gastric bypass. But both of the procedures have a malabsorption of iron and some vitamins, especially Vitamin B-12 and somewhat of Vitamin B-1. They can become very serious problems. Somebody who is deficient in Vitamin B-1 can get neurological problems and even have permanent neurological damage if it's not caught in time. The mortality rate being higher is certainly a disadvantage of the procedure.
