HealthDay Reporter, 14th December 2008

Weight-loss operation is sometimes a life-saving procedure for severly obese patients. What’s more, gastric bypass extends those patients’ lives. Surgeons have got a difficult decision to make who should and who shouldn’t undergo such an operation.

Internists, cardiologists and endocrinologists are being asked if a patient will benefit or not from the operation. For Dr. Edward H. Phillips from the Department of Surgery and a surgeon at the Center for Weight Loss in Los Angeles is obvious that a 30-year-old will benefit but he’s wondering what age should be considered as too old for such procedure.

Another debate takes place about batriatic surgery for type 2 diabetes. Researches show this operation improves patients’ lives. After the procedure they no longer need the medication they would have taken until the end of their lives without the surgery.

“There’s more acceptance now of the concept that bariatric surgery is a truly life-saving type of therapy rather than just a way to shed pounds,” said Dr. Francesco Rubino, from Gastrointestinal Metabolic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Long-term researches still need to take place to establish which patients should be allowed this type of surgery.

Each year more and more weight-loss procedures are performed. In 2007 about 205.000 operations took place. It’s 20% more that in the previous years.

Batriatic surgery is a very successful weight-loss surgery providing that patients make changes in their life-style, meaning change diet and start exercising. If a patient does not change a life-style, the post-surgery results might not be satisfying.

A research on 16.000 obese people was led by Ted Adams from University of Utah School of Medicine. Half of the group underwent weight-loss operation whereas the other part didn’t. After seven years after the operation the death rate in the group who had the batriatic procedure was 40% lower than in the other group. The death rate in the diabetes was cut by 92%.

Studies show that age is not a barrier for this kind of operations. In another research over 1.000 weight-loss procedures took place between 2001 and 2005. It turned out that patients over 60 years of age had the same safety and effectiveness than younger patients.

Some surgeons think, though, this kind of procedures should not be carried out in patients over 80 years of age.
“The likelihood of extending their lives is unknown,” said Dr. Phillips. “Also, if a complication occurs, they can’t survive it.”
Despite great results, the surgeons advice that all patients must be very careful as batriatic surgery is considered a risk associated procedure. “There should be careful assessment of the pros and cons of surgery and the pros and cons of remaining severely obese.” Dr. Adams said.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 10:48 am and is filed under Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.