What is The Fobi-Pouch Operation

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While gastric bypass surgery is a broad term used to describe the treatment of obese patients, several modifications also have proven highly successful over the past 10 to 15 years. The best known of these is the "Fobi-Pouch" created by Dr. Mathias Fobi. It is a modified version of the Gastric Bypass procedure, which has shown excellent weight loss results across a broad spectrum of the population, an acceptable range and intensity of complications, a low repeat rate, and excellent overall tolerance by most patients.

A second important gastric bypass modification is gastroplasty, a commonly used procedure for treating obesity. Vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) and silastic ring vertical gastroplasty (SRVG) are the two most frequently performed gastroplasty variations, and each has many supporters. While the success rate for gastroplasty is only 60%, well below traditional gastric bypass surgery, those who successfully lose weight report an overall weight loss comparable to that experienced by traditional gastric bypass surgery patients and maintained over five years. Mortality and morbidity rates of less than 1% and 10%, respectively, also compare favorably with traditional gastric bypass surgery. Also on the negative side, a high revision rate of 28% over five years, due primarily to the breakdown of staple lines, also has been demonstrated.