Health Risks & Benefits of Gastric
Reduction Surgery to Treat Severe Clinical Obesity
Weight Loss Surgery - Benefits and Risks
Surgery to alleviate obesity and produce
weight loss is a serious undertaking.
Anyone thinking about surgery should understand
what a gastrointestinal weight loss operation involves. Patients and physicians
should carefully consider the following surgical benefits and risks:
Weight Loss Surgery - Benefits
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Right after surgery, most patients
lose weight quickly and continue to lose for 18 to 24 months after
the procedure. Although most patients regain 5 to 10 percent of
the weight they lost, many maintain a long-term weight loss of about
100 pounds.
Surgery improves most obesity-related
conditions.
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For example, in one study blood sugar
levels of 83 percent of obese patients with diabetes returned to normal
after surgery. Nearly all patients whose blood sugar levels did not return
to normal were older or had lived with diabetes for a long time.
Weight Loss Surgery - Risks
- Ten to 20 percent of patients who have
weight-loss surgery require follow-up operations to correct complications.
- Abdominal hernia was the most common
complication requiring follow-up surgery, but laparoscopic techniques
seem to have solved this problem.
- In laparoscopy, the surgeon makes one
or more small incisions through which slender surgical instruments are
passed. This technique eliminates the need for a large incision and
creates less tissue damage. Patients who are superobese (>350 pounds)
or have had previous abdominal surgery may not be good candidates for
laparoscopy, however.
- Less common complications include breakdown
of the staple line and stretched stomach outlets.
- Some obese patients who have weight-loss
surgery develop gallstones. Gallstones are clumps of cholesterol and
other matter that form in the gallbladder. During rapid or substantial
weight loss, a person’s risk of developing gallstones increases.
Taking supplemental bile salts for the first 6 months after surgery
can prevent gallstones.
- Nearly 30 percent of patients who have
weight-loss surgery develop nutritional deficiencies such as anemia,
osteoporosis, and metabolic bone disease. These deficiencies usually
can be avoided if vitamin and mineral intakes are high enough.
- Women of childbearing age should avoid
pregnancy until their weight becomes stable because rapid weight loss
and nutritional deficiencies can harm a developing fetus.
Weight Loss Surgery - Costs
The medical costs of gastrointestinal weight
loss surgery can be high. ($20,000+). Medical insurance coverage varies
by state and insurance provider. If you are considering gastrointestinal
surgery, contact your regional Medicare or Medicaid office or insurance
plan to find out if the procedure is covered.
Is Weight Loss Surgery for You?
Gastrointestinal surgery may be the next
step for people who remain severely obese after trying nonsurgical approaches,
or for people who have an obesity-related disease. Candidates for surgery
have:
- A BMI of 40 or more.
- A life-threatening obesity-related health
problem such as diabetes, severe sleep apnea, or heart disease and a
BMI of 35 or more.
- Obesity-related physical problems that
interfere with employment, walking, or family function.
If you fit the profile for surgery, answers
to the following questions may help you decide whether weight-loss or
gastrointestinal surgery is appropriate for you.
Weight Loss Surgery - Questions to Ask
Yourself
Are you:
- Unlikely to lose weight successfully
with nonsurgical measures?
- Well informed about the surgical procedure
and the effects of treatment?
- Determined to lose weight and improve
your health?
- Aware of how your life may change after
the operation (adjustment to the side effects of the surgery, including
the need to chew well and inability to eat large meals)?
- Aware of the potential for serious complications,
dietary restrictions, and occasional failures?
- Committed to lifelong medical follow-up?
Weight Loss Surgery - No Guarantees
Remember: There are no guarantees for any
method, including surgery, to produce and maintain weight loss. Success
is possible only with maximum cooperation and commitment to weight-related
behavioral change and medical follow-up - and this cooperation and commitment
must be carried out for the rest of your life.
Weight Loss Surgery - A Summary of Risks
and Benefits
- Bariatric or gastrointestinal weight
loss surgery is not a quick fix or any easy way out. It is a drastic
step, and it includes all the pain and risk of any major abdominal operation.
- Weight loss surgery forces people to
change their eating habits radically, makes them violently ill if they
overeat and because gastric bypass operations cause food to skip the
duodenum, where most iron and calcium are absorbed, there are risks
for nutritional deficiencies.puts them at lifelong risk for major nutritional
deficiencies.
- Many lose more than 100 - 200 pounds.
Some reach a normal weight, while others remain heavy, though less overweight
than before.
- In a 1991 report, the National Institutes
of Health concluded that surgery was a reasonable solution for some
people and said, ''a major drawback to the nonsurgical approach is failure
to maintain reduced body weight in most patients.''
- With drugs or diet, most patients can
realistically hope to lose no more than 10 percent of their body weight
- a mere 30 pounds in someone who weighs 300, for instance - and even
that may not last.
- Alternatively, one study shows that
10 years after the most commonly performed bariatric operation, the
gastric bypass, patients on average have maintained a loss of 60 percent
of their excess weight.
- Do not always believe everything you
hear about bariatric surgery. Talk with people who have undergone the
surgery. See weight loss surgery resources, below.
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Additional Weight Loss Surgery Resources:
American
Society for Bariatric Surgery
140 NW 75th Drive, Suite C
Gainesville, FL 32607
Phone: (352) 331-4900
Fax: (352) 331-4975
Website: www.asbs.org
ObesityHelp.com
You can find hundreds of weight loss surgery patients at ObesityHelp.com.
You can find your surgeon, research his credentials and read about what
his patients have to say about him.
Bariatric
Weight Loss Surgery
For short introductory articles on gastric bypass, adjustable gastric
banding and issues surrounding the benefits and health complications of
weight loss surgery. |
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