Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery › Bariatric Program › Services

Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery

Gastric bypass surgery reduces the size of your stomach and bypasses part of your small intestine. The reduced stomach size means that you feel full after eating less food and bypassing a portion of the intestine means fewer calories are absorbed from the food you eat.  In combination, less food eaten and less calories absorbed results in the most effective weight loss procedure currently available in the United States.

How gastric bypass surgery works

During the Roux-en-Y procedure, the stomach is divided into a small pouch which will become your new stomach and the remainder of the stomach which will no longer receive any of the food you eat. The upper part of the small intestine is then divided and one part is connected to the small pouch to form an outlet for food.  The other part of the divided small intestine is reconnected further down the part of the intestine draining the small pouch forming the "Y" described in the name Roux-en-y. Although most of the stomach no longer comes in contact with food, it continues to produce digestive juices which are added to the small intestine at the Y shaped junction.  The small stomach pouch limits the amount of food that can be eaten and by effectively shortening the small intestine that comes in contact with food, less calories are absorbed into the body.