Choosing Gastric Bypass

Do I need my doctor's approval to get gastric bypass surgery?

A patient requesting bypass surgery or any bariatric surgery definitely needs to be approved by multiple physicians. The surgeon is the most important in the sense that he's overseeing all the different problems the patient has and he has to be willing to go ahead and take the risks of doing the surgery, explain those risks to the patient and the patient be willing to take those risks. But the bariatric surgeon will almost invariably get an internist or a family practitioner to see the patient, either their own doctor or a doctor that's working with the bariatric surgeon to show that there is no other problems that might contraindicate the surgery or that need to be cured before undergoing surgery.

Is gastric bypass surgery permanent?

Gastric bypass surgery reroutes a patient's intestines and stomach, patients like to use the word plumbing. Their plumbing is redone it's a funny way for me to think about. It can be put back, and yes, gastric bypass surgery can be reversed, but it's never reversed exactly the way it was to begin with because obviously we have removed tissue and we have to then put things back together. But the patient can be reversed and usually they have fewer residual problems from the reversal procedure. But there certainly can be additional problems occurring because of the different surgery.