Obesity is a chronic disorder which is caused by a variety of factors and constitutes a threat to health in several ways, including through psychological and social interactive elements.

Changing eating habits and reduced exercise will certainly contribute to this.

We are becoming more and more convinced that heredity plays a significant role.

Despite countless conservative attempts to maintain an acceptable weight, such as diets and physical exercise, some people develop MORBID OBESITY nonetheless, and this condition can be life threatening!
If therapies fail to work, there may even be a need for surgical intervention!

For more than 50 years, there has been a great deal of research into a variety of surgical techniques.

The aim of a surgical intervention is not only to achieve weight loss, but also to maintain this weight loss. Also, the weight achieved should be as close as possible to the ideal weight. The purpose of a surgical intervention is to enable the body to do without excess calories, so that a new balance can be reached.

This can be achieved in 3 ways:

1° Restrictive techniques (restriction of food intake), such as VERTICAL BANDED GASTROPLASTY by MASON and GASTRIC BANDING.
With these, the patient can take in only small quantities of food. So, in effect, this is a dietary aid!

2° Malabsorption techniques (restriction of digestion), such as BILIOPANCREATIC DERIVATION, by SCOPINARO.      
This technique has been described and performed by the above since 1976.
Here, we are not concerned with how many calories the patient eats, but the amount he can absorb.

3° Combined techniques, such as the GASTRIC BYPASS. This surgery is mainly concerned with restricting food intake, and to a lesser extent reducing digestion. However, the long-term results are considerably better than those for purely restrictive surgery. This is due to reduced food intake, a reduced feeling of hunger, and “dumping” when sugars are ingested.

Our department performs Gastric Banding, Biliopancreatic Derivation and the Gastric Bypass. We describe these 3 techniques in detail on this website.

In our department, we perform these techniques almost exclusively via laparoscopic or keyhole surgery.