Stomach staple surgery, gastric bypass and bariatric surgery are surgical methods of assisting people having extreme difficulty losing weight. These procedures are used mostly in serious cases of overweight or for those who can be classed as morbidly obese.

This is a situation brought about by a mechanism that evolved in our earliest ancestors. Food could not be stored in those days so man developed the ability to store excess food as fat. This fat provided for times when food was scarce  but in the modern world food is plentiful

and so the need for this mechanism is no longer vital for survival and we get a situation whereby people are becoming more and more overweight. The solution is to eat less and exercise more so weight loss occurs. Unfortunately in some of the population when a certain size is reached a chemical change takes place in the body and  dieting and exercise  now fail to reduce the excess weight. The process continues with ups and downs in weight but there is an inexorable upward rise in weight over time. Because of this more severe methods of weight control are required hence the stomach staple surgery.

There are basically two ways of reducing weight with surgical methods and they are usually used together. The first is to create a pocket in the stomach reducing the space available for food and therefore the amount the patient can eat and hold in the stomach. Secondly, food is made to bypass the duodenum and parts of the intestine so the absorption of nutrient from the food is reduced. The theory is that less nutrient means less calories and less calories equates to weight reduction. To achieve the results, slightly different methods are employed.

This is achieved by stapling part of the stomach together forming a small pocket and of course explains the use of the phrase stomach staple surgery. Instead of staples the pouch is sometimes formed by use of vertical banding. The pocket so formed is now connected to the intestine further down so bypassing the duodenum and part of the intestine.




This is  a more complex surgical procedure than the RGB in that a large part of the stomach is removed and the small pouch left is bypassed to the final segment of the small intestine. This certainly causes weight loss but its use is more limited as it can generate a shortage in nutritional requirements brought about by the severe malabsorption created.




All surgery has associated risk from anaesthetic complications to infection and stomach staple surgery is no exception. It can be performed with laparoscopy in many cases today, however, which  makes it a more minor operation.



There are some limitations to the procedure in that the low level of nutrients can cause anaemia, the patient is condemned to having to eat small and often because of the reduced stomach size, some people require supplements to meet their bodies requirements and yet others have difficulties with different types of  food such as sugars and fats.
Additional complications include the pouch stretching, bands and staples failing so the stomach returns to what it was prior to the surgery and all benefits are lost. Some patients simply can not eat enough food so suffer forever with ongoing nutritional deficiencies.

Stomach staple surgery needs to be considered carefully, given some of the complications, but for the morbidly obese  with no alternatives it has to be a serious option in the battle to lose weight.