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JIB - intestinal bypass |
This early weight loss (obesity) surgery bypassed most of the small bowel, leaving about 12-18 inches still connected. Besides causing diarrhea after every meal, lots of vitamins did not get absorbed. The JIB was designed to be reversible after the patient had lost a lot of weight but many JIBers did not have their surgeries reversed. Because the stomach was not stapled, and the intestines in some patients, reconfigure to absorb more, if a people survived the early problems, they can live a normal lifespan (despite the dour predictions of some surgeons). In tact JIB patients should carefully monitor their liver enzymes and take a lot of vitamins and watch what they eat - eating a nutritious balanced diet. A famous JIB patient was Trumpeter, Al Hirt. He re-gained most of his weight back and died of liver failure, 30 years after his obesity surgery was done. (pictured to the left) Many providers will tell you that the newer surgeries like the gastric bypass (which is not that new since they started doing those in the 1960's) are "so much better" and "so much safer" than the JIB. They may be less uncomfortable as far as diarrhea but there is no evidence they are safer at all because at least the JIB was totally reversible (with 10-15 years after surgery) and at least those patients still had their stomachs in tact. (A lot of food is digested in the stomach!) Surgeons say they stopped doing the JIB because of the danger of liver failure but I think they REALLY stopped doing it because many patients regained their weight.
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