Selected Podcast
Now, More Than Ever, is the Right Time for Bariatric Surgery
Dr. Gerald Cahill discusses bariatric surgery for weight loss.
Featuring:
Gerald Cahill, MD
Gerald Cahill, MD is a colorectal surgery specialist. He graduated from University Of Illinois College Of Medicine Chicago and specializes in colorectal surgery and bariatric surgery. Transcription:
Caitlin Whyte: Sometimes all of the diets in the world won't work for certain patients, making bariatric surgery, the best option for weight loss. Joining us today to talk Bariatric surgery is the Chief Surgeon at the Franciscan Midwest Bariatric Institute, Dr. Gerald Cahill. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte, Dr. Cahill, tell us why certain patients consider weight loss surgery?
Dr. Cahill: Weight loss surgery has been around for a long time now, but it's become more and more popular over the last several years as the obesity problem in the United States has gotten to an epidemic proportion. And so patients that are overweight, you know, morbid obesity is defined as being a hundred pounds overweight. Those people with time typically develop many medical problems, which are really negative in terms of their longevity of life, but, but also their overall health in terms of problems they'll acquire with time, you know, the biggest one being diabetes.
Host: So when we're talking bariatric surgery, who makes a good candidate?
Dr. Cahill: Well, okay. So a candidate for an operation today is really somebody that is at least 100 pounds over their ideal body weight, which is that's usually will bring them into a body mass index. If you know, what that was reflective of, of 40, body mass index is your height versus your weight. Body mass index of 40 typically is a criteria to consider bariatric surgery to control your weight. However, if your body mass index is 35 or two 40, and you have some medical problems that are what we consider comorbidities with obesity, that would bring you into a candidate for weight reduction surgery as well. Because weight reduction surgery not only can improve your weight, but it can get rid of problems like diabetes, mellitus, hypertension, sleep apnea, and it can prove a lot of joint problems that come with being obesity.
Host: Now, once the surgery has been done, what is recovery time like? I mean, I'm sure you don't just wake up and all your weight and problems are gone. Right?
Dr. Cahill: Well, surgery recovery is, is typically on the order of about two weeks now. All the operations are performed, what we call minimally invasive, which are done either laparoscopically or robotically today. And so the operations are performed with very, very small incisions. The hospitalization is only one day and patients can return to their normal routine in approximately two weeks.
Host: Now, what are the effects for patients? I mean, what are the biggest impacts you hear from people who have gotten the surgery?
Dr. Cahill: Well, I mean, I've been doing bariatric surgery now since 1998 and I've done an excess of 8,000 operations. So I think I have a kind of an, you know, benchmark in terms of what the experience was in terms of what it can do for patients, not only in terms of weight loss, but improving their medical conditions that we've just talked about, but the psychosocial benefits of dramatic weight loss. I mean, I, one of my favorite stories is I had a patient who was 18 years of old, went to Great America. If you know what that is, that's a amusement park North of the city. It's a big amusement park North of the City. And so he was so big that he couldn't go, he was 18. He went to, this is a senior trip in high school, but he couldn't get on any of the rides because of his weight, but he had an operation he's lost weight and he's done very, very well in the long-term. So it's the psychosocial benefits of dramatic weight loss, especially at the younger age groups. That could be very, very important.
Host: So why are doctors considering right now to be the best time to get bariatric surgery?
Dr. Cahill: Right now is very important time to consider bariatric surgeries. Because what we are seeing is that with COVID-19, this problem is a much more serious problem in terms of both morbidity and mortality. That means dying. If you develop COVID-19, if you are overweight and have some of the comorbidities that come with being obese, specifically, the ones that I just mentioned, that being diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, many of the patients that develop severe COVID-19 conditions and even death had these kinds of preexisting conditions.
Host: So if I'm listening to this and I'm interested in getting bariatric surgery, I mean, where do I begin?
Dr. Cahill: Well, you can begin the Franciscan Health webpage has several programs that can be accessed easily through either a telephone call or an email, and it can be accessed likely close to their home.
Host: Dr. Cahill, tell us about the different options of surgeries.
Dr. Cahill: So today there are basically three different types of Bariatric operations that are available to most patients. There is the most popular option called the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, where the stomach is reduced in its size by approximately 80%. So 80% is removed and you're left with a tube or a sleeve. And this is the most popular surgical weight loss option performed in the world today. The second option is what's called the gastric bypass, which has been around the longest relative to bariatric operations. And this operation is where you make the stomach much smaller on the size of about an egg. And then you reconfigure the small intestine to bypass the stomach and plug into the new created smaller gastric pouch. And the third option is a malabsorption operation called a duodenal switch, which is now performed laparoscopically. And this operation is used for the most, the largest patients we see who are the biggest and have the largest amount of comorbidities. And this operation is really reserved for those types of people
Host: And Dr. Cahill, is there anything that I didn't touch on that you want to add to this discussion about bariatric surgery and, you know, getting it now?
Dr. Cahill: Right. So Caitlin, I think my new phrase in terms of bariatric surgery, after doing this for many, many years in so many patients, I'm telling everybody now more than ever bariatric surgery is important because now with the advent of COVID-19 and what it can do to people. We are seeing that if patients intervene on their weight and have dramatic weight reduction, and control their medical problems that go with being obese, they will have a much better chance of surviving an infection if it is to occur.
Host: Well, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing this information, Dr. Cahill. That was Dr. Gerald Cahill, chief surgeon at the Franciscan Midwest Bariatric Institute. Find out more about bariatric surgery with them at franciscanalliance.org. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte. Thanks for listening.
Caitlin Whyte: Sometimes all of the diets in the world won't work for certain patients, making bariatric surgery, the best option for weight loss. Joining us today to talk Bariatric surgery is the Chief Surgeon at the Franciscan Midwest Bariatric Institute, Dr. Gerald Cahill. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte, Dr. Cahill, tell us why certain patients consider weight loss surgery?
Dr. Cahill: Weight loss surgery has been around for a long time now, but it's become more and more popular over the last several years as the obesity problem in the United States has gotten to an epidemic proportion. And so patients that are overweight, you know, morbid obesity is defined as being a hundred pounds overweight. Those people with time typically develop many medical problems, which are really negative in terms of their longevity of life, but, but also their overall health in terms of problems they'll acquire with time, you know, the biggest one being diabetes.
Host: So when we're talking bariatric surgery, who makes a good candidate?
Dr. Cahill: Well, okay. So a candidate for an operation today is really somebody that is at least 100 pounds over their ideal body weight, which is that's usually will bring them into a body mass index. If you know, what that was reflective of, of 40, body mass index is your height versus your weight. Body mass index of 40 typically is a criteria to consider bariatric surgery to control your weight. However, if your body mass index is 35 or two 40, and you have some medical problems that are what we consider comorbidities with obesity, that would bring you into a candidate for weight reduction surgery as well. Because weight reduction surgery not only can improve your weight, but it can get rid of problems like diabetes, mellitus, hypertension, sleep apnea, and it can prove a lot of joint problems that come with being obesity.
Host: Now, once the surgery has been done, what is recovery time like? I mean, I'm sure you don't just wake up and all your weight and problems are gone. Right?
Dr. Cahill: Well, surgery recovery is, is typically on the order of about two weeks now. All the operations are performed, what we call minimally invasive, which are done either laparoscopically or robotically today. And so the operations are performed with very, very small incisions. The hospitalization is only one day and patients can return to their normal routine in approximately two weeks.
Host: Now, what are the effects for patients? I mean, what are the biggest impacts you hear from people who have gotten the surgery?
Dr. Cahill: Well, I mean, I've been doing bariatric surgery now since 1998 and I've done an excess of 8,000 operations. So I think I have a kind of an, you know, benchmark in terms of what the experience was in terms of what it can do for patients, not only in terms of weight loss, but improving their medical conditions that we've just talked about, but the psychosocial benefits of dramatic weight loss. I mean, I, one of my favorite stories is I had a patient who was 18 years of old, went to Great America. If you know what that is, that's a amusement park North of the city. It's a big amusement park North of the City. And so he was so big that he couldn't go, he was 18. He went to, this is a senior trip in high school, but he couldn't get on any of the rides because of his weight, but he had an operation he's lost weight and he's done very, very well in the long-term. So it's the psychosocial benefits of dramatic weight loss, especially at the younger age groups. That could be very, very important.
Host: So why are doctors considering right now to be the best time to get bariatric surgery?
Dr. Cahill: Right now is very important time to consider bariatric surgeries. Because what we are seeing is that with COVID-19, this problem is a much more serious problem in terms of both morbidity and mortality. That means dying. If you develop COVID-19, if you are overweight and have some of the comorbidities that come with being obese, specifically, the ones that I just mentioned, that being diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, many of the patients that develop severe COVID-19 conditions and even death had these kinds of preexisting conditions.
Host: So if I'm listening to this and I'm interested in getting bariatric surgery, I mean, where do I begin?
Dr. Cahill: Well, you can begin the Franciscan Health webpage has several programs that can be accessed easily through either a telephone call or an email, and it can be accessed likely close to their home.
Host: Dr. Cahill, tell us about the different options of surgeries.
Dr. Cahill: So today there are basically three different types of Bariatric operations that are available to most patients. There is the most popular option called the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, where the stomach is reduced in its size by approximately 80%. So 80% is removed and you're left with a tube or a sleeve. And this is the most popular surgical weight loss option performed in the world today. The second option is what's called the gastric bypass, which has been around the longest relative to bariatric operations. And this operation is where you make the stomach much smaller on the size of about an egg. And then you reconfigure the small intestine to bypass the stomach and plug into the new created smaller gastric pouch. And the third option is a malabsorption operation called a duodenal switch, which is now performed laparoscopically. And this operation is used for the most, the largest patients we see who are the biggest and have the largest amount of comorbidities. And this operation is really reserved for those types of people
Host: And Dr. Cahill, is there anything that I didn't touch on that you want to add to this discussion about bariatric surgery and, you know, getting it now?
Dr. Cahill: Right. So Caitlin, I think my new phrase in terms of bariatric surgery, after doing this for many, many years in so many patients, I'm telling everybody now more than ever bariatric surgery is important because now with the advent of COVID-19 and what it can do to people. We are seeing that if patients intervene on their weight and have dramatic weight reduction, and control their medical problems that go with being obese, they will have a much better chance of surviving an infection if it is to occur.
Host: Well, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing this information, Dr. Cahill. That was Dr. Gerald Cahill, chief surgeon at the Franciscan Midwest Bariatric Institute. Find out more about bariatric surgery with them at franciscanalliance.org. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte. Thanks for listening.