There are a few forms of obesity surgery that aren’t well known these days. Some of them are new and just beginning to be used, others are considered dangerous and any good bariatric surgeon wouldn’t consider mentioning the method as an option for surgery.
First the new procedure that’s being developed is called Gastric Pacing. This requires no removal or restriction of the stomach or intestines. It consists of surgery to place small electrical leads in a specific point on the stomach. These leads are attached to a pacer which can send a mild shock to the stomach. This is found to be affective because experiments show that mild shock of the nerves of the stomach that control appetite will cause your appetite to be suppressed. As you can see this will be a much less invasive technique for patients thinking about obesity surgery. This procedure isn’t widely available yet.
One of the first methods of obesity surgery is the Vertical banded Gastroplasty. It was created by a Dr. Mason who was one of the original obesity surgeons. Interestingly before Gastric Bypass this was the most common form of obesity surgery used. It involved creating a small stomach pouch using stapling and reinforcing it with a permanent ring at the end of the pouch. This involved sectioning off a part of the stomach rather than removing any of it. The procedure is rarely, if ever used now because it doesn’t give consistent levels of weight loss as the gastric bypass does.
Jejuno-Ileal Bypass is one of the most dangerous forms of obesity surgery ever used. It became very common in the seventies because it was easy to perform. Unfortunently many patients developed liver and kidney problems after the bypass, sometimes a few years later and some died as a result. It involved the removal of a large portion of the small bowel in order to prevent the body from absorbing as much food. This surgery is no longer performed.