Obesity :: Weight loss surgeries effective for some

A review of weight loss surgeries on more than 22,000 extremely obese patients found the procedures helped many lose more than 100 pounds and combat related health problems.

Weight loss surgery has become increasingly popular, with more than 100,000 such procedures performed last year in the United States alone. The report was sponsored by Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which markets minimally invasive surgical instruments including a device used in weight loss surgery. Two of the report’s authors are consultants to Ethicon.

“Even after accounting for the pain and anxiety of surgery, the inconveniences of dietary restrictions, and possible complications including re-operation, quality of life should improve for the majority of bariatric surgery patients,” said the report published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

But the American Society for Bariatric Surgery recommends the procedure only for extremely overweight people and warns that there can be both short and long-term complications. It says the death rate immediately after surgery is low but can rise to as high as 10 percent in later months because of infections, leaks and other problems.

The report said that the weight loss from surgery and relief from deadly related health problems, combined with improved appearance and better social and economic opportunities, “should markedly enhance quality of life and several studies support this contention.”

The study from the University of Minnesota found that, on average, all patients lost more than 61 percent of their excess weight. In addition diabetes was completely resolved in 76 percent of the patients, high blood cholesterol problems were resolved or improved in 86 percent, high blood pressure was corrected in 61 percent and obstructive sleep apnea was resolved or improved in 83 percent.

The Minnesota researchers said they based their conclusions on a review of 136 studies published in English and involving 22,094 patients who underwent various kinds of weight loss surgery between 1990 and 2003. More than 72 percent of the patients were women and the average age of both men and women involved was 39.

All were considered morbidly obese, meaning that they were at least 100 pounds (45 kg) over their ideal weight.


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