What is Biliopancreatic Diversion?
Biliopancreatic diversion is a more radical version of gastric bypass surgery where the surgeon removes up to 70 percent of your stomach and “bypasses” even more of you small intestine.
A less extreme version of this is a biliopancreatic diversion including a so-called “duodenal switch”. Again this is more complicated than a straight gastric bypass. The surgeon removes somewhat less of the stomach and bypasses less of the small intestine than the full biliopancreatic diversion described above.
The procedure makes malnutrition, ulcers and dumping syndrome less likely than with the ordinary biliopancreatic diversion.
Biliopancreatic diversion can cause weight loss at a rapid rate – faster than an ordinary gastric bypass. Interestingly enough, though a large percentage of the stomach gets removed by the surgeon, the remainder is actually larger than the pouches that remain after a banding operation or a gastric bypass operation.
You might be able to eat larger meals after a biliopancreatic diversion than with other weight loss surgical procedures.
Cons of biliopancreatic diversion surgery
Among the cons relating to biliopancreatic diversion is the fact that it is much less common that gastric bypasses. One reason is that if you don’t get enough nutrients following the op you run the risk of starvation or other drastic side effects.
Otherwise the risks are much the same as with other weight loss surgery, including dumping. It is believed that the duodenal switch might mitigate some of these risks.
Biliopancreatic diversion is one of the most risky and involved types of weight loss surgery. In common with gastric bypass surgery, there is a high risk of hernias. In the event of hernias, further surgery will be required. This risk is lessened somewhat if the surgeon uses procedures (laparoscopy) which are less invasive.
Talk to several weight loss surgery before deciding to undergo this type of procedure.