Gastric bypass surgery medical malpractice lawsuit

Gastric bypass surgery/ Bariatric surgery

There are basically two ways to perform gastric bypass surgery. The first is surgery under anesthesia where the surgeon divides the stomach into a small upper section and a larger bottom section using staples that are similar to stitches. The top section of the stomach (called the pouch) will hold the food you take in. After the stomach has been divided, the surgeon connects a section of the small intestine to the pouch. When you eat, the food will travel from the pouch through the new connection bypassing the lower portion of the stomach.

Gastric bypass can also be performed using a laparoscope, which is a less-invasive procedure that allows the surgeon to make smaller incisions lowering the risk of scars and hernias after the procedure. With the laparoscopic method, your surgeon will make small incisions in your abdomen and pass thin surgical instruments through the narrow openings of the incisions. The surgeon passes a camera (the laparoscope) through one of the openings and does the surgery watching a video monitor of his actions. Not everyone is a candidate for this technique of gastric bypass. If you weigh more than 350 or have had past abdominal surgery, you are probably not a good candidate for this technique.

Source: U.S. National Library of Medicine / National Institutes of Health

Serious Side Effects of Both Bypass Surgery Techniques

Infections

Bleeding

Gallstones

Gastritis

Vomiting

Iron or Vitamin B12 deficiency

Calcium deficiency

Diarrhea

Nausea

Studies have shown that in the 30 days following gastric bypass, as many as 1 in every 50 patients died post-op. Approximately 3% of patients who had gastric bypass surgery were younger than 40 and died within 13 years. After 15 years, almost 12% of bypass surgery patients died. About 10% to 20% of all patients having gastric bypass require follow-up operations to correct complications, the most common one being abdominal hernias. More than one-third of the patients having the surgery develop gallstones. Other post-surgery complications are leaks, infection, ulcers and deep thrombo-phlebitis.

Because of the large number of people suffering complications and dying after having gastric bypass surgery, medical malpractice claims involving gastric bypass are increasing each year.

The most common causes of gastric bypass malpractice are inexperienced surgeons performing the procedure, failure to diagnose and properly treat leakage of gastric fluids, pulmonary embolism, gastric bleeding, and properly screen potential bypass patients.

Additional Gastric Bypass Surgery Images

All images on this web page are property of U.S. National Library of Medicine / National Institutes of Health and A.D.A.M., Inc. a accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission