Beaufort Memorial Hospital | Affiliated with Duke University Health System in heart and cancer

Bariatric Surgery Program

The Bariatric Surgery Program at Beaufort Memorial Hospital is designed to provide a surgical weight-loss option to severely overweight adults.

The surgery performed at BMH by Dr. Neil McDevitt is called the Roux-en-Y Gastric-Bypass (RGB). This is one of the most popular and successful gastric bypass operations. This operation can be done as a laparoscopic procedure where several small incisions are made instead of one large one. The benefits include shorter recovery time, less time in the hospital, less pain, and less chance of infection.

Not all patients will qualify for the laparoscopic approach. Your surgeon will make the final decision about which approach is best for you, based on your weight, size, and any previous abdominal surgeries.

Obesity: A complicated issue
More than 50 percent of the adult U.S. population is overweight, and five percent of the population is considered “severely overweight,” meaning they are 100 or more pounds over their ideal body weight for their height, or their body mass index (BMI) is over 40. 

The most common complications of obesity include adult onset diabetes (Type II), high blood pressure (which can cause a heart attack or stroke), arthritis, asthma, sleep apnea, urinary incontinence and acid reflux. Significant weight loss can help these conditions or make them completely go away. However, very frequently the usual weight loss methods such as diet, exercise, and diet pills have not worked very well for many severely overweight people.

In these cases, gastric bypass surgery for weight loss may be a good option for severely overweight people.