(14-09-06) The Complications of Obesity Surgery

The latest evaluation of drastic weight-loss surgery provides both good news and bad news for patients who are severely obese. The study by federal health analysts found that the death rate from so-called bariatric surgery was relatively low but that the rate of subsequent complications was twice as high as measured in previous studies that followed patients for much shorter periods. Even so, for some people, the benefits of the drastic surgery, which typically involves shortening the intestines and reducing the size of the stomach, must surely outweigh the risks.
The new study, which was conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, examined insurance claims data for some 2,500 people under age 65 who had weight-loss surgery in 2001 and 2002. The death rate was only two per thousand patients. But 22 percent of the patients suffered complications during their initial stay in the hospital, and that number rose to 40 percent during the first six months after discharge. The complications ranged from the relatively routine, like diarrhea and vomiting, to more serious leakage of gastric fluids, abdominal hernias and infections. The report found that laparoscopic bariatric surgery, which requires only small incisions, had a lower complication rate. So as laparoscopy increasingly becomes a favored mode of treatment, complications should come down.
Patients will need to be aware of these problems, but they do not seem grave enough to warrant shunning surgery that is often the only hope for morbidly obese patients who may be 100 or more pounds overweight.

Source: NYTIMES.COM

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