Clinically severe obesity is a serious medical condition that demands a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach for treatment. Severe obesity is often accompanied by high blood pressure, diabetes, degenerative arthritis, increased cancer risk, and heart attacks. The death rate of severely obese people in every age group is about ten times higher. Quality of life is threatened because severely obese people cannot move about easily or comfortably, and self-esteem and self- confidence are often affected.

In 1991 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) assembled physicians, nutritionists, and other health care professionals and made recommendations regarding bariatric treatment. Bariatric means obesity. From this gathering, the NIH now recommends that weight reduction should always be recommended for patients with severe obesity. If nutrition therapy, exercise, and behavior modification cannot successfully reduce weight, bariatric surgical procedures such as the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass, Gastric Sleeve and Adjustable Gastric Banding are options. For many years these procedures required an incision from the breast to the groin, the open method, which is a risk.

Recently, the laparoscopic method, which requires several one-inch incisions in the abdomen, has been approved as an alternative method to perform these surgical procedures. The Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass, Gastric Sleeve and Asjustable Gastric Banding are available at the Vanderbilt Bariatric Surgery Center and can be performed as either open or laparoscopic procedures.

It is important for anyone considering bariatric surgery to understand the many medical, psychological, behavioral, and financial aspects. For your recovery to be successful, you will need to make some lifelong changes. Some of the changes may seem difficult, but the result can be permanent weight reduction and overall improved health.

It is our hope that this web site provides you with information that will be useful in your recovery from surgery and also helps you lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.