If you've serious health problems caused by excessive weight, or when exercise or dieting haven’t achieved the desired weight loss, a gastric bypass may be the answer. It is considered to be a drastic measure, but it is quite commonplace these days.

Traveling abroad for your surgery can cost a lot less than at home, and give you the opportunity to recuperate in a holiday destination.

It is a form of bariatric (weight loss) surgery and it works by restricting how much food you can eat. By making your stomach smaller and shortening the small intestine, food will bypass these areas, which means you will only be able to eat small amounts.

If you are morbidly obese with a BMI (body mass index) of over 40, and particularly if you have a medical condition where weight loss would be beneficial, you may be a suitable candidate. You will generally need to be in good health, and be steadfast in your desire to keep the weight off in the future.

Prior to the surgery, you may be asked to lose some weight, and to stop smoking as this affects the healing process, as well as increasing your chances of blood clots or infection. Two weeks’ before surgery you will need to eat a healthy diet that is low in fats, carbohydrates and sugars, as well as abstaining from alcohol, which will reduce the size of your liver so keyhole surgery (laparoscope) can be used.

Six small incisions will be made across the abdomen where the laparoscope can be inserted. Using the laparascope, the stomach will be divided to form a small pouch using surgical staples, and this will be connected to the small intestine. Any food entering the stomach after this will bypass the main part, and because it is so much smaller, you won’t be able to eat as much.

Once the procedure is complete, the small wounds will be closed with clips or stitches.

For the majority of people, the gastric bypass will be completed in less than an hour, although, rarely, it may take up to a couple of hours.

Immediately after surgery you will be encouraged to get up and move around, as this helps the healing process. You will usually be wearing compression garments to aid circulation. You will be allowed home 2-5 days and will be advised on diet. You will only be able to eat tiny amounts, and will start with liquids after the surgery, moving onto pureed foods.

It will take around a month before you have recovered from the surgery and before you can start an exercise routine, which is advisable to tone your muscles and to help with the weight loss process.

The world is a small place, and globalization means that new techniques are adopted quickly throughout the world. Training at medical schools is becoming more standardized, so you are just as likely to get the same expertise in one country as another.

That said, we would always recommend you choose your medical practitioners wisely, and check-out as much as you can about them – it is always better to be safe than sorry as unscrupulous practitioners can operate anywhere.

At Medical Departures, we pre-screen all our doctors, as well as visit clinics and publish patient testimonials. We also verify doctors’ qualifications and their professional memberships and list them online so anyone can view them for free.

We only use quality-checked doctors, so you are assured of seeing a reliable and trustworthy surgeon for your gastric bypass abroad. Take the time to check out our listings and make your own informed choice.

You can save between 50 and 70% by having your gastric bypass surgery abroad, which could amount to several thousands, so it is definitely worth considering.