Gastroenterologist Questions Gastroenterologist

What happens to the rest of the stomach after gastric bypass?

I am a 38 year old female. I want to know what happens to the rest of the stomach after gastric bypass?

7 Answers

It shrinks to some degree.
Your stomach and small intestine get fully removed and your esophagus is connected to your colon.
The bulk of the stomach is completely bypassed. It is still in the abdominal cavity, relatively unchanged anatomically, but it does not receive any food. It connects to the small intestine but it remains empty. After bypass surgery, the food ingested will go into a gastric pouch or remnant which is connected directly to the small intestine, while the actual stomach does nothing at all.
It becomes non functional
Please watch the whole gastric bypass procedure on You Tube for complete understanding. A limb of your small is surgically attached to the remnant pouch. It is called the Roux limb. Also, use Wikipedia for most simplistic explanation of this procedure.
It is left in place as the "remnant" to continue to produce acid that aids in digestion.
There are several different procedures and most just reduce the size of the stomach. Ask the surgeon which s/he uses and you will get lots of pictures.