Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass

Gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller and causes food to bypass part of the small intestine. You will feel full more quickly than when your stomach was its original size. This reduces the amount of food you can eat at one time. Bypassing part of the intestine reduces how much food and nutrients are absorbed. This leads to weight loss.

One type of gastric bypass surgery is a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

In normal digestion, food passes through the stomach and enters the Reference small intestine Opens New Window Reference Opens New Window, where most of the nutrients and calories are absorbed. It then passes into the Reference large intestine Opens New Window Reference Opens New Window (colon), and the remaining waste is eventually excreted.

In a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, only a small part of the stomach is used to create a new stomach pouch, roughly the size of an egg. The smaller stomach is connected directly to the middle portion of the small intestine (jejunum), bypassing the rest of the stomach and the upper portion of the small intestine (duodenum).

This procedure can be done by making a large incision in the abdomen (an open procedure) or by making a small incision and using small instruments and a camera to guide the surgery (Reference laparoscopic Opens New Window approach).

See a picture of a Reference Roux-en-Y gastric bypass Opens New Window Reference Opens New Window.

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