mybiglife, 20th April 2010

Obesity brings health risks, and this is no different for pregnant women. Obesity during pregnancy has impact not only on the woman but also on the unborn baby. This condition may also bring chronic diseases in the future.

Some research have been carried out to see if bariatric surgery has any impact on pregnancy. The results were very interesting: weight-loss surgery can reduce the risk of hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, including gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia.

The study was carried out by Wendy L. Bennett, assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The aim of the research was to determine if bariatric surgery could prevent the development of these diseases.

585 women took part in the study: 269 delivered their babies before undergoing weight-loss surgery and 316 who had a surgery prior to conceiving.

The results showed that in 80% the risk of preeclampsia and eclampsia among women who had weight-loss surgery before becoming pregnant was reduced, as well as the risk of gestational hypertension reduced by 74% and the risk of chronic hypertension in pregnancy reduced by 61%.

The results of the study were published online in the British Medical Journal.

Dr. Bennett highlights that not every pregnant woman wants to undergo a weight-loss surgery, or is the right candidate for it, but the results of the research are interesting and worth considering for the future mothers and their babies.

Medscape, 12th April 2010

Some research has been carried out to see if there is relation with overweight patients with psychiatric illnesses and weight-loss surgery. The study shows that those patients lose similar weight as the patients without mental issues.

Weight-loss depends on numerous factors. The surgery is only one of them. An important cofactor is the presence of a psychiatric diagnosis but the newest reserach shows that even individuals with depression, anxiety or any psychological disorder experienced similar levels of weight loss compared with those with no psychiatric diagnoses.

Angela Banitt, MA, a doctoral student at University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said.“There is a feeling [among practitioners] that patients with psychiatric diagnoses will fare poorly [with bariatric surgery], but the study showed no statistically significant difference.”

61 patients took part in the study (61% men and 39% women). All patients underwent bariatric surgery between year 2003 and 2008: 41% underwent gastric bypass and 59% had laparoscopic band surgery.

Before the surgery, patients had a mean (SD) age, weight, and body mass index of 48.2 (17.3) years, 303.1 (48.7) lb, and 45.5 (5.9). Overall, participants had a mean (SD) weight loss of 68.5 (40.2) lb. Psychological examinations showed that 54% of participants had depression, 28% had anxiety, and 69% of the sample had at least 1 psychiatric diagnosis (mean ± SD = 1.3 ± 1.4). Other diagnoses included psychosis, bipolar, and Axis II disorders.

“I think it’s fantastic that people are examining the impact of psychological conditions on weight loss outcomes in these types of surgery,” said Robyn Osborn, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland.

wkow.com, 7th April 2010

Very often patients who lost weight thanks to the weight-loss surgery are still not happy with their shape. Excess skin looks heavy and even healthy diet and exercising cannot do much about it.

The good news is a new procedure, called coset trunkplasty, that “removes a significant amount of skin from the entire abdomen, from the flanks, from the lower chest, even the upper back and the lower back”, says Dr. Moya from Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Medical Center.

The surgery consists on removing a big circle of skin from the abdomen, the tightening the abdominal wall and pulling the skin closed. Then the excess skin is removed under the breastbone and at the lower waistline.

The procedure is tailored to the individual need of each patient. Any weight from 1 to 30 pounds can be removed during one operation.