Are You A Candidate for Gastric Bypass Surgery?
To be considered a candidate for gastric bypass surgery normally you are about 80-100 lbs. overweight and have tried to lose weight under a doctors supervision. You have complicating comorbities such as heart conditions like hypertension and some form of hyperglycemia or full on diabetes.
Normally candidates for gastric bypass surgery have a body mass index (BMI) of 35, 40 or higher and need to be able to make a committment to see a doctor for a prolonged period of time before during and after surgery. It is a serious decision and the candidate should be fully aware of all potential risks and side effects as well as be mentally competent to make decisions for themselves.
Persons under the age of 18 that want gastric bypass surgery obviously need parental permission and must undergo pre surgery counseling to determine their readiness level for a gastric bypass. Again, especially for under age persons… you will need to have some sort of documentation that you’ve tried to lose weight unsuccessfully under supervision before a gastric bypass can be considered.
Finally, to be a candidate you cannot have any drug or alcohol problems or psychiatric disorders that are uncontrolled. Uncontrolled means that they are not current problems and that they will not interfere with your gastric bypass recovery or complicate the actual surgery. The pre counseling sessions will determine if this is a problem or not.
Hopefully this helps give you a guide to whether or not you are a candidate for gastric bypass surgery.
