Ordinary weight-loss operation linked with continuing gastrointestinal issues, finds study

A common weight loss surgery called laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass operation is closely associated with the long lasting food intolerance and gastrointestinal problems, a recently conducted medical experiment suggested. The research led by Dr. Thomas Boerlage of MC Slotervaart in Amsterdam revealed a significant connection between the weight loss surgery and the long-lasting health problems of food intolerance and other digestive issues.

The study started in 2012 involved 249 extremely overweight patients who had undergone through the weight loss surgery called “laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass”, which is intended to lessen the stomach to a tiny pocket about the mass of an egg. After monitoring the patients for 2 years, the researcher found 31% of those patients to lose their total body weight. But when the researchers compared gastric bypass patients with the group of 295 obese people who didn’t undergo the operations, they found the first group to be far more likely to experience dyspepsia and an incapability to bear a number of foods.

In 2012, when the study was initiated, the average age of the patients was 46 years. Of the total included patients, 45% were suffering from high blood pressure while 29% had diabetes. Researchers put all of the patients on medical trial and compared them to the group of obese people who didn’t go through the surgical procedure, in order to evaluate around 16 different symptoms of gastrointestinal and other digestive issues. After closing out the study, the concluded the postoperative team to have 2.2 average symptoms, while the controlled group is found to have only 1.8 symptoms.

While giving more details on the research through an e-mail conversation, Dr. Thomas Boerlage, the lead author of the study said, “Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, which is a common surgery for weight loss has previously been proved as an effective way to aggravate gastrointestinal issues and symptoms. But, most of these researches took the one year of post-surgery period for concern, while we experimented for long two years.”

The surgery, no doubt is extremely effective to heal the issues of food intolerance and common gastrointestinal issues like hard or loose stools, stomach murmuring, dyspepsia, flatulence, and belching said the researcher in the study published in ‘British Journal of Surgery’.