Weight Loss Surgery
Explore Benefits and Risks Surgery to produce weight loss is a serious undertaking. Each individual should clearly understand what the proposed operation involves. Patients and physicians should carefully consider the following benefits and risks:
Benefits
Immediately following surgery, most patients lose weight rapidly and
continue to do so until 18 to 24 months after the procedure. Although
most patients then start to regain some of their lost weight, few
regain it all.
Surgery improves most obesity-related conditions. For example, in
one study blood sugar levels of most obese patients with diabetes
returned to normal after surgery. Nearly all patients whose blood
sugar levels did not return to normal were older or had had diabetes
for a long time.
Risks
Ten to 20 percent of patients who have weight-loss operations require
followup operations to correct complications. Abdominal hernias are
the most common complications requiring followup surgery. Less common
complications include breakdown of the staple line and stretched stomach
outlets.
More than one-third of obese patients who have gastric surgery develop gallstones. Gallstones are clumps of cholesterol and other matter that form in the gallbladder. During rapid or substantial weight loss a person's risk of developing gallstones is increased. Gallstones can be prevented with supplemental bile salts taken for the first 6 months after surgery.
Nearly 30 percent of patients who have weight-loss surgery develop nutritional deficiencies such as anemia, osteoporosis, and metabolic bone disease. These deficiencies can be avoided if vitamin and mineral intakes are maintained.
Women of childbearing age should avoid pregnancy until their weight becomes stable because rapid weight loss and nutritional deficiencies can harm a developing fetus.
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Is the Surgery for You?
For patients who remain severely obese after nonsurgical approaches
to weight loss have failed, or for patients who have an obesity-related
disease, surgery may be the best next step. But for other patients,
greater efforts toward weight control, such as changes in eating habits,
behavior modification, and increasing physical activity, may be more
appropriate. Answers to the following questions may help in your decision
to undergo surgery for weight loss.
Are you:
unlikely to lose weight successfully with (further) nonsurgical measures?
well informed about the surgical procedure and the effects of treatment?
determined to lose weight and improve your health?
aware of how your life may change after the operation (adjustment to the side effects of the surgery, including need to chew well and inability to eat large meals)?
aware of the potential for serious complications, the associated dietary restrictions, and the occasional failures?
committed to lifelong medical followup?
Do you:
have a BMI of 40 or more?
have an obesity-related physical problem (such as body size that interferes with employment, walking, or family function)?
have high-risk obesity-related health problems (such as severe sleep
apnea or obesity-related heart disease)?
Remember: There are no guarantees for any method, including surgery,
to produce and maintain weight loss. Success is possible only with
your fullest cooperation and commitment to behavioral change and medical
followup--and this cooperation and commitment should be carried out
for the rest of your life.
Source: NIDDK
Weight Loss Surgery: Preventing the Health Risks
If you have been watching your weight go up and you are worried about the rising pounds, you may be wondering whether weight loss surgery really works. Is it possible to prevent future weight gain by putting yourself on a well-known weight loss surgical operation?
Today, weight loss surgeries are gradually gaining recognition when it comes to losing weight. Many health experts contend that people who are excessively overweight or has slower metabolism would normally require some surgical operations.
Surgery at Present
The greatest progress in the care of the surgical patient has taken place since the beginning of the present century. An increasing knowledge of disease and disorder as a result of research has permitted the development of many diagnostic aids. Some of these depend upon roentgenograms, laboratory procedures such as chemical, bacteriologic, and pathologic determinations, as well as monitoring devices and computer aids.
Hence, the result is that the diagnosis of disease and disorder is made with more exactness and certainty than was possible from the simple clinical examinations of previous days.
That is why people who wish to undergo weight loss surgery should no longer be afraid of the procedure because high clinical standards are now being implemented in every surgical operation.
The Concept of Weight Loss Surgery
Health experts contend that weight loss surgery is a major surgery. One of the most common reasons why people would like to lose weight is to enhance their physical attributes. However, it should not be the underlying motivation that they should undergo the process of weight loss surgery.
What people do not know is that weight loss surgery is especially generated to help obese people live longer, healthier, and better.
That is why it is important for an individual to meticulously analyze his or her situation, do some research about the process, and analyze if weight loss surgery is the ultimate choice for his or her physiological condition.
Moreover, it is important to gather further information about weight loss surgery by consulting an experienced and knowledgeable bariatric surgeon or even just an expert family physician who knows the ins and outs of weight loss surgery.
In addition, the patient should also consult the other health experts such as the psychiatrist and dietician with regards to some psychological advices on long-term goals after the operation.
Generally, patients who have undergone weight loss surgery are said to be successful if they were able to lose 50% or more of their extra body weight and will be able to maintain that condition for the next five years or so. However, the results of the operation may still vary depending on the clinical information of the patient and the skills of the bariatric surgeon.
Normally, the patient will be able to lose at least 30% to a maximum of 50% during the first six months after surgery; and within the year after the operation, the patient has the potential of losing weight up to a maximum of 77%.
Best of all, people who were able to loss weight through surgical operations can actually maintain a continuous weight loss of up to 50% to 60% in the next 10 to 14 years after surgery.
Factors to Consider
As with the other weight loss management programs, there are many factors to consider before the patient should decide to undergo weight loss surgery.
Consequently, the actual weight that will be lost is reliant on the weight before surgery, surgical procedure, patients age, capability to exercise, total health condition of the patient, dogged determination to maintain the necessary follow-up nurture, and the enthusiasm to succeed with the help of their family, friends, and their colleagues.
If you have just put on a few extra pounds and want to avoid gaining more, these weight loss surgeries for better health may seem convincing. But, in addition to being convinced, you may also have to take some action to ensure that your weight does not creep upward.
Therefore, it can be concluded that losing weight is not just a question of deciding to be strong-willed and determined or upbeat and positive. Lifestyle changes are where it is at for long-term success with your weight especially after weight loss surgery.
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