OBESITY SURGERY: LOSE THE WEIGHT, BUT RISK YOUR LIFE

Up to now, surgery to correct obesity has been considered relatively safe, but recent studies have shed light on the real risks.

          A University of Washington surgeon studied 16,155 Medicare patients who underwent obesity surgery between 1997 and 2002 to analyze the risks.  He found that among patients 35 to 44, more than 5% of men and almost 3% of women died within a year after the surgery.  As the patient’s age increases, so do the risks, going up gradually until the patient becomes a senior citizen.  When the patients get to the range of 65 to 74, the death rate in the first year becomes almost 13 percent of men and 6 percent of women.  In patients 75 and older, half of the men and 40% of the women died in the first year following the surgery.

          The long-documented complications for obesity surgery included malnutrition, infection, bowel problems and gallbladder problems, any of which can lead to death.   Any surgery can itself be a deadly shock to the system, as well as adverse reactions to the anesthesia and other drugs used.

          Another study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at the hospitalization of obesity surgery patients.  It found 8% of obesity surgery patients were hospitalized prior to the surgery, mostly for complications of obesity.  However, in the year after the surgery, more than 205 were hospitalized for complications related to the surgery itself.

          The American Society for Bariatrics Surgery (referring to surgery for the purpose of inducing weight loss) says that this year more than 150,000 obesity surgeries will be performed, up from the almost 13,000 performed in 1998.