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Bariatric surgery gives patients, to a large degree, the wellness obesity had taken away from them

Over the past two decades, Doctor in Science Miguel Angel Martinez Alfonso has witnessed the positive impact of an opportune and rigorous treatment on the life of a person.
Bariatric surgery, one of the leading programs at the National Minimum Access Surgery Center (CNCMA is the Spanish acronym), is a group of techniques developed to reduce stomach capacity and modify the intestines, in an effort to avoid the absorption of fat and nutrients during the digestive process. This surgical procedure allows doctors give patients the wellness obesity had taken away from them.
This disease is one of the main risk factors related to diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, cardiovascular, renal and respiratory diseases, and even articular disorders, many of which actually cause the patient to pass away. However, the implications go even farther, since obesity lacerates the self-esteem of people that suffer from it, who assume their body image in a negative way, become depressed, stigmatized and isolated. That is the reason why this type of surgeries are truly needed by some patients.
Backed up by nearly 3,000 esophagogastric surgeries, with bariatric surgery taking center stage, CNCMA applies world-class standardized techniques in this procedure: gastric sleeve, so approximately 80 percent of stomach volume is removed and its capacity gets reduced; and gastric bypass, in which weight loss is related to stomach reduction and food goes directly to the intestine, so absorption is reduced.
“We use top-of-the-line equipment and technology in these procedures, with suturing machines that extraordinarily humanize surgery and help us achieve successful results,” Dr. Martinez Alfonso said.
The full professor and auxiliary investigator underlined the benefits of applying minimum access techniques in bariatric surgery. Some decades ago, these procedures entailed large incisions and high morbidity and mortality. “Large incisions in obese patients bring about several complications, such as infections and hernias, as well as the thromboembolism related to the long time they have to spend in bed,” the specialist explained.
He pointed out that laparoscopic surgery allows surgeons to operate with high precision within the abdominal cavity, so recovery is faster, with less postoperative pain, brief incapacity and minimum damage to the organism; which works as prophylaxis against the above-mentioned complications and improves patients’ quality of life.
Bariatric laparoscopic surgery has been practiced at CNCMA, which presently stands out as a national benchmark center with high international prestige, since 2004.
The distinctive characteristic of this service is the work carried out by a multidisciplinary team made up of the institution’s professionals and representatives from other leading centers, such as the Endocrinology Institute. The team includes specialists in nutrition, psychology, endocrinology, surgery, anesthesiology and cardiology, among other, depending on the characteristics of each patient, who are integrally assessed before undergoing surgery.
Once the desired weight loss results are obtained, many patients need reconstructive surgery and the institution counts on highly qualified plastic surgery experts.
The specialist underlined that these techniques are applied to adults, ages under 65, suffering from severe obesity and non-transmissible chronic diseases, with over 5 years of failed non-surgical medical treatment, no drug addicts, who are aware of the need to modify their lifestyle and know details related to the surgery to be faced.
Some 650 million people around the world suffer from obesity or overweight. Out of them, 124 million are teenagers and youngsters, and 41 million are children under 5 years. Many of them find in bariatric surgery a new way into wellness and health.