It's a mixed blessing surgery.
It is not THE answer to weight loss, and is generally used as the last extreme to help patients. Unfortunately, as with the rest of simlar healthcare procedures ... this is now beginning to move from a treatment surgery, prescribed by a doctor to an elective surgery, where the patient asks for it (THANK YOU OPRAH!!). This surgery was originally used for those who had truly exhausted every possibility, and in some respects it still is though. Controlled diet & exercise along with other treatments of drugs would have been used prior to this (I'm sure some people who've had it done already can vouch for this), so it is an attempt to fix a seemingly 'un-fixable' problem.
The problems are mostly two-fold. There is still no major long-term (20+ year) medical trailling/observations that have been done for this practice, so the long-term outcomes are still a little unsure. Of course, good old US decides to use it's citizens as Guinea Pigs ... believing in reacting to long term side-effects that appear as opposed to ensuring that there are none first.
Secondely, I have been led to believe from the research that I have done on this topic (my wife wants it ... again ... THANK YOU OPRAH!!) ... that the effect of wait loss is not long term unless diets and exercise are adjusted. It would appear (from what I've read) that the body will compensate and attempt to return to it's favoured metabolic rate ... not sure 'exactly' how ... but it sounds kind of like the reduced stomach size slowly begins to operate at a higher efficiency ... or maybe it regenerates parts it lost ... but in the end the wait loss can be gained back again. This may of course be to the fact that information I was reading referred to people who thought 'that's it!' and laid on the couch (now thin) eating chips, never exercising and watching Oprah!
I personally don't agree with it, as it's kind of (not entirely though) a form of enforced starvation, but I can understand the situations where it truly is required. I will remain wary of the whole thing until another 20+ years has passed and there aren't reports of people having severe complications due ot it.
For more information though, I would consult your doctor for his/her opinion, and ask for reading material on it.
