Dumping Syndrome After Bariatric Surgery
Do you experience nausea and severe abdominal pain just after having food? This might be a sign that you have Dumping syndrome. Keep reading to know more about this common condition associated with bariatric procedures. Log on to https://bariatricbrooklyn.com/ to know more about weight loss.
Dumping syndrome is a common side effect of bariatric surgery. It is a group of symptoms that may occur as a result of having a portion of your stomach removed or other stomach surgery. The symptoms range from mild to severe and usually go away with time. Although dumping syndrome can be frightening at first, it is not life-threatening. You can manage it by changing your dietary habits and watching what you eat. Controlling dumping syndrome also means avoiding foods that cause you to gain weight.
Causes
Dumping syndrome is caused after bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery removes a large portion of your stomach and connects it directly to your small intestine. When you eat food and drink something, gastric juices from your stomach move the food and drink into the small intestine in an uncontrolled fast manner. This way the digestive system is not able to digest the food and causes numerous symptoms.
It is very rare that dumping syndrome develops without surgery and for other reasons.
Risk factors
Dumping syndrome can be increased by surgery that alters your stomach. These surgeries are most used to treat obesity, but they can also be used to treat stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, and other conditions. These procedures include:
- Bariatric surgery, particularly gastric bypass surgery (Roux-en-Y procedure) or sleeve gastrectomy is used to treat morbid obesity.
- Gastrectomy is a surgical procedure in which a portion or all of your stomach is removed.
- Esophagectomy is the surgical removal of all or part of the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach.
- Fundoplication is a treatment for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and hiatal hernia.
- Vagotomy is a type of stomach ulcer surgery.
- Pyloroplasty is a procedure that widens the stomach valve (pylorus), allowing food to pass through.
Symptoms
Symptoms can happen in two phases and with different causes in the body. The first phase is called the early phase and happens around 30 to 60 minutes after you eat. Symptoms might include:
- Rapid heartbeat
- Nausea or vomiting
- Severe diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
- Feel full, even after several bites of the meal.
These early phase symptoms are caused when food is rapidly dumped into the small intestine. This can lead to these factors such as:
- The small intestine got stretched.
- Water sucks out of the bloodstream and moves into the small intestine.
- Hormones get released from the small intestine into the bloodstream which affects blood pressure.
Late-phase symptoms happen after 1 to 3 hours of eating. Symptoms include:
- Extreme weakness
- Dizziness, fainting, or passing out.
- Loss of concentration or mental confusion.
- Rapid heartbeat
- Feeling of hunger
- Flushing or sweating
These symptoms can occur due to rapid rise and fall in blood sugar levels. It can be worse if you eat sweets or other carbohydrates. If you haven’t been diagnosed with dumping syndrome until now, call for immediate medical help.
Treatment
Treatment of dumping syndrome begins with watching what you eat.
Modifying your diet:
The doctor might ask you to keep track of the foods that cause the symptoms and look out for improvements over time. It has been observed that dumping syndrome symptoms get milder with time with simple changes in eating habits and diet.
Medications:
Even after changing your eating habits, if your symptoms don’t improve; the doctors might prescribe:
- Sandostatin (injections might be given based on the severity of the symptoms)
- The short-acting version is injected under the skin 2 to 4 times per day before meals. A healthcare professional may inject the medication or train you, a friend, or a relative to do so.
- Once every four weeks, the long-acting form is injected into your gluteal muscles. Pain where the medicine is injected, diarrhea, weight gain, gallstones, and steatorrhea are all possible side effects.
- Prandase/Precose (used mostly to help reduce symptoms of late dumping syndrome)
Surgery
If stomach or esophageal surgery caused your dumping syndrome and other treatments are ineffective, your doctor may recommend another surgery to try to correct the problem. The type of surgery recommended by your doctor is determined by the type of surgery that caused your dumping syndrome. Dumping syndrome surgery does not always work.
If you have any concerns about bariatric surgery, call us at 1-347-384-5690 to schedule a consultation. Doral Health and Wellness has one of the best bariatric doctors and surgeons to treat your obesity and overweight problems. Book your appointment and walk in for an appointment at 1797 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11212.