Gastric bypass surgery is the most often carried out operation for weight loss in the USA with more or less 140,000 operations being done in 2005 Dating back more than 50 years, a lot of surgeons have grown up with gastric bypass surgery and possess a very effective understanding of both its risks and benefits.

In many cases gastric bypass is the last option when other forms of weight loss and dieting have proved unsuccessful and where you are very much overweight. This commonly means that you have a body mass index (BMI) over 40, or over 35 with an accompanying condition that raises the risk of premature death or disability. These conditions might include type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea and heart disease among others. More simply, this translates into being about 100 pounds above your ideal weight.

The rationale behind gastric bypass surgery is simply to cut down the effective size of the stomach and bypass the greater portion of the stomach, and part of the intestine, curtailing your ability to eat too much food and also reducing the body's absorption of the food that is consumed.

In spite of the fact that open gastric bypass surgery is still frequently done an increasing number of surgeons are starting to adopt the laparoscopic approach and, although this requires a great deal of training and expertise on the surgeon's part, there are several advantages to this approach. Here are just a few:

1. As just about 5 tiny incisions are made the healing time following surgery is greatly reduced, as is the chance of infection and of suffering a hernia.

2. There is substantially less post-operative pain and the little pain that is present needs only mild painkillers such as tylenol and codeine.

3. Laparoscopic surgery enables greater precision since surgery is performed under magnification and the surgeon can see details that are not visible during open surgery.

4. As laprascopic surgery is quicker than traditional open surgery the patient spends less time in surgery and needs less anesthesia, leading to fewer anesthesia-related complications.

5. As patients are on their feet rapidly there is less risk of blood clots, bed sores, pneumonia and other complications normally associated with immobility.

6. Laparoscopic surgery enables you to return to work in a reasonably short timeframe, often as little as one week although it is suggested that patients do not return to work for some two weeks for safety.

Gastric bypass surgery results is a significant improvement in a patient's quality of life and also has the additional benefit of improving, or in some cases of curing, diabetes, sleep apnea, venous status disease, headache, hypertension and other disorders.

That the surgery can now be carried out so much more easily and can leave patients relatively pain free and have them up and about very quickly means that more people are likely to make use of gastric bypass surgery and enjoy a healthier and happier lifestyle.