Surgery For Morbid Obesity

Morbid Obesity is when it reaches the point that one or more obesity-related health conditions result in significant physical disability or even death.Clinical Severe Obesity is also the same term as Morbid Obesity. Morbid Obesity is more or less defined as being more than 100 lbs over your ideal weight or have a Body Mass Index of 40 or more. It is considered a chronic disease, meaning that it develops over time.

The prevalence of morbid obesity in the UK population is rising, bringing with it increased levels of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis and early mortality. The overall cost to the health service is high, and is set to increase over the coming decades as the overweight population ages. Dietary, lifestyle and pharmacological interventions offer at best reasonable, short-term weight reduction and often fail. Surgical intervention is a safe and effective means of delivering marked long-term weight reduction. This article compares and contrasts the options available for surgical treatment of morbid obesity based on a review of the current literature.

Surgical treatment is medically necessary because it is the only proven method of achieving long term weight control for the morbidly obese. Surgical treatment is not a cosmetic procedure. Surgical treatment of severe obesity does not involve the removal of adipose tissue (fat) by suction or excision. Bariatric surgery involves reducing the size of the gastric reservoir, with or without a degree of associated malabsorption. Eating behavior improves dramatically.[50] This reduces caloric intake and ensures that the patient practices behavior modification by eating small amounts slowly, and chews each mouthful well. Success of surgical treatment must begin with realistic goals and progress through the best possible use of well designed and tested operations. These have been worked out over the last thirty years, and are now standardized, clearly defined procedures, with well recognized and documented outcome results.

The purpose of the International Bariatric Surgery Registry (IBSR), formerly known as the National Bariatric Surgery Registry (NBSR), is to improve outcome for patients undergoing surgical treatment of severe obesity. Development of the centralized IBSR database has provided standardized clinical data collection and analysis for the surgical treatment of obesity. IBSR enables bariatric surgeons to e valuate and improve their patient care while learning from the combined experience of colleagues. The Decade of Change paper, published in 1997, foreshadowed changes occurring in bariatric surgery today. 1 IBSR provides requested data for creden tialing and accreditation but does not perform these activities. The data entry site must collect the data that will be requested. A number of insurance companies are currently creden tialing surgeons and accrediting hospitals. The Surgical Review Corporation and the Am erican College of Surgeons have begun collecting data, creden tialing and accrediting. IBSR has the only 20-year experience in analysis of these data and therefore the opportunity to determine the best operations for keeping patients alive.

Little is known about the effects on the skeleton of laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRGB) surgery for morbid obesity and subsequent weight loss. We compared 25 patients who had undergone LRGB 11 3 months previously with 30 obese controls matched for age, gender, and menopausal status. Compared with obese controls, patients post LRGB had significantly lower weight (92 16 vs. 133 20 kg; P < 0.001) and body mass index (31 5 vs. 48 7 kg/m2; P < 0.001).

A combination of calorie restriction and exercise (when adhered to) appears to be more effective rather than either one alone. Sticking to a weight reduction program is difficult and requires much support from family members and friends.