Americans by the millions are going on diets, running, stepping and crunching to work off those excess pounds. Unfortunately, there are many young to middle-aged adults whose health is being jeopardized by morbid obesity—people who are at least 100 pounds overweight or twice their ideal weight. This excess weight often limits their ability to succeed and move ahead in both business and social situations. They also risk such life-threatening conditions as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, orthopedic problems, gall bladder disease and sleep apnea.

While numerous medical therapeutic approaches to morbid obesity have been advocated, including low-calorie diets, drugs, behavioral modification and exercise therapy, the majority of patients fail to maintain the reduced body weight. The only treatment proven effective in the long-term management of morbid obesity is bariatric surgery—such as a gastric bypass or the new gastric banding procedure.

Many morbidly obese patients are reluctant to undergo gastric bypass surgery—traditionally an open, invasive procedure. But thanks to new, minimally invasive surgical techniques, this “last-resort" procedure has become more appealing. The non-invasive techniques use tiny slits in the abdomen that allow a surgeon to insert a camera-equipped scope and surgical instruments to perform surgical procedures. These techniques are equally successful and offer many added patient benefits. The benefits include less post-operative pain, reduced risk of wound infection, a shorter hospital stay, faster recovery and a more rapid improvement in quality of life. There are basically two types of surgeries to treat extreme weight loss.