When it’s about weight loss surgery, there are numerous choices available these days including classical Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, laparoscopic and robotic adjustable gastric banding. You may have read a lot about lap band and how adjustable gastric banding works, but here the question is which weight loss surgery can prove the best for the patients with very high BMI.

Here we need to define what we really reckon when we talk about a particularly high BMI. Usually it is reckoned that obesity starts with a BMI (Body mass index) of 30 and counts as morbid obesity at 40 and at this point most doctors have to consider a surgical solution for this problem. Almost all forms of weight loss surgery are generally suitable for patients with a BMI in the 40s if they don’t have some co-existing medical condition. However, when BMI begins to cross the limit of 50s, the choices begin to become limited and the risk of gastric bypass surgery rise sharply.

Though there is increased risk, many patients are reckoned suitable and chosen for gastric bypass surgery. Some patients also take the safer route gastric banding; again the question is which is better?

In a recent study, which involved 106 patients who all had a BMI in excess of 50, 60 patients went through gastric banding while the rest of 46 underwent gastric bypass surgery. The researchers found that more than three quarters of the gastric banding patients had complications like vomiting and dehydration after the surgery, while these complications were noted in less than one third of the gastric bypass patients.

Similarly, the researchers found that almost more than three quarters of the gastric bypass patients were happy with the results and none was regretful for their choice and on the other hand, less than half patients were happy with gastric banding and almost ten percent patients expressed dissatisfaction and felt regretful to their decision.

Apparently, it seems that gastric bypass surgery is obviously the preferred choice, but for many patients with a high BMI this option is not suitable as the risks are too high.