Obesity is a major health problem worldwide. It leads to a host of serious health associated problems like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, arthritis, sleep apnea etc. Treatment includes life-long diet and lifestyle modifications. Bariatric surgery is now widely accepted definitive treatment for obesity and associated co-morbidities.
In bariatric surgery either the size of the stomach is reduced or some portion of intestine is bypassed. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy surgery is one such procedure in which about 70 to 80% of the stomach is removed leaving a narrow gastric tube through which food passes. In Gastric bypass surgery a pouch is created with 20-30 ml capacity and remaining stomach and some part of small intestine is by passed. Both gastric bypass and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy surgery are effective tools in achieving long-term weight loss and also improve obesity-related conditions like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea etc.
Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy surgery and gastric bypass surgery cost in India varies depending on hospital (government or private), location of hospital, use of instruments, duration of hospital stay, post- operative care etc. The cost may also vary depending on the type of surgery as in laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy surgery with or without band or gastric bypass surgery. The cost may range between 2.5 lakh to 5.5 lakh and more.
One should not compromise on safety and quality of care solely on cost considerations because in a tertiary care center the available multi-specialty support and back-up though adds to the cost but makes surgery safer. The outcome and weight loss depends more on the quality of post-operative follow up then the surgery as such therefore all these factors including the cost should be taken into consideration before selecting a center.
