Weight Loss Surgery Information

Howdy. Just a quick Friday post to leave you with some helpful information over the weekend.

This website is full of weight loss surgery information — nearly 200 pages of information, in fact. But because of that volume, the information is not always accessible at first glance. It takes some digging to find what you’re after. Of course, you could always use the search tool as a shortcut.

So … we decided to compile some important information from the site in the form of a frequently-asked-questions list.

1. What types of weight loss surgery are there?
We have an article on the site called “What is Bariatric Surgery?” that does a good job explaining the most common types of bariatric surgery.

2. What are the basic criteria for weight loss surgery?
All surgeons have a slightly different way of deciding whether a person is a good candidate for weight loss surgery. But most of them base their decisions on industry standards … certain pre-defined criteria for surgery.

3. How much does weight loss surgery cost?
On average, these surgeries range from $10,000 to $40,000. To learn about the many factors that determine this cost, read out article on the cost involved with weight loss surgery. Also see our related blog post about LAP-BAND surgery costs.

4. How do I find a weight loss surgeon?
All surgeons have different levels of skill, experience, bedside manner, etc. So it’s important to find one with the right blend of characteristics that suits you. Remember, when you factor in the follow-up process, you may be working with this person for over a year. For more on this, we direct you to the appropriate part of our bariatric surgery quiz.

5. What are the possible risks and complications?
This is always a wise question to ask about weight loss surgery. It shows that you’re thinking about the big picture, and not just the success stories you read about. As you might have guessed, we have written an article about the possible risks and complications.

Okay, so it was more than a “quick Friday post.” But information is what we do here! Have a great weekend.

-BLC

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Time.com published a story yesterday about surgery for obesity. In addition to following the gastric bypass surgery of one particular patient, this article also sheds light on obesity surgery as a whole.

It also cites a significant new study that insurance companies could spend less by approving obesity surgery for their customers (rather than covering the long-term health problems associated with obesity).

An excerpt:

Even though Medicare and Medicare began covering bariatric surgery last year, many private insurance companies still do not want to pay for such an expensive procedure, which can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000. However, a small preliminary study presented at the conference could change some of this thinking.

Read the full article here

P.S. Have you tried our weight-loss surgery quiz yet?

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In the past, we have written about obesity surgery in teens / adolescents. New evidence suggests that adolescents tolerate obesity surgery better than adults do. An article at MSNBC explains that adolescents are less prone to complications of weight loss surgery.

According to the article:

“[Researchers] compared post-surgical complications in 55,192 obese patients age 18 and older who had various types of bariatric surgery for weight loss with those in 309 obese patients ages 12 to 18 who underwent the procedures. About 5.5 percent of the adolescents had complications within 30 days of surgery, none of them fatal. By comparison, nearly 10 percent of the adults experienced complications, 0.2 percent fatal, according to the study presented at a meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery in San Diego.”

Read the full story

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It has long been known that bariatric weight-loss surgery lowers risk of heart disease in most patients. Most patients of weight loss surgery lose a significant amount of weight as a result of their surgeries. That’s the point, after all. This weight reduction has a direct, positive impact on the patient’s risk of heart disease — by lowering that risk.

Want to follow the history of these developments? Here’s an excerpt from one of the first stories on this topic, published by Standford University:

A study using new measures of heart disease risk shows that gastric bypass surgery reduces the risk of heart disease even more than previously believed. The finding underscores the value of the surgery for extremely overweight people, whose obesity puts them in danger of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular illness, said the study’s lead author Brandon Williams, MD, a general surgery resident, and senior author John Morton, MD, assistant professor of surgery and director of bariatric surgery at Stanford Hospital.

Read the full story

We are currently looking for more recent news and information on this subject, and will post here as we find it.

P.S. We have a new weight-loss surgery quiz online!

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Bariatric surgery can make more people sensitive to alcohol, Stanford surgeon finds

STANFORD, Calif. — An Oprah Winfrey-inspired study done by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine has found that patients who undergo gastric bypass surgery to lose weight will get drunk faster and take longer to get sober.

“It may sound strange, but Oprah really did inspire this study,” said John Morton, MD, MPH, assistant professor of surgery and senior author of the study, who presented the information June 14 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Referring to an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Morton said, “After the Oprah show ‘Suddenly Skinny’ aired in October 2006, I got question after question from patients asking, ‘What happens when I drink alcohol?’”

Morton has performed more than 1,000 gastric bypass surgeries and routinely warns patients to be cautious when drinking alcohol after the surgery. But following the Oprah episode, which explored possible dangerous effects of alcohol on post-surgery gastric bypass patients, the overwhelming concern from his patients motivated Morton to research the scientific data on the topic. When he couldn’t find much data, he decided to conduct a study with Stanford medical student Judith Hagedorn, who is the first author of the study. The study will be published in the official journal of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, SOARD (Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases).

“I’ve heard the anecdotes of a patient who will drink one glass of wine and get a DUI, but I wanted to know if there is really a difference before and after surgery,” Morton said. “It’s an important question for patients.”

The study shows scientific evidence that supports cause for concern, Morton said. To measure the effects of alcohol, researchers gave 19 post-operative gastric bypass patients and 17 control subjects 5 ounces each of red wine. They were told to drink their wine within 15 minutes. Each subject then had their breath-alcohol level measured every five minutes until levels reached zero.

The gastric bypass patients reached a breath-alcohol peak of 0.08 percent vs. the control group’s peak breath-alcohol level of 0.05 percent. The bypass patients also took significantly longer to return to zero, averaging 108 minutes vs. 72 minutes for the control subjects.

“The bypass patients have a fundamentally altered alcohol metabolism,” Morton said. “They reach a higher peak more quickly and take a longer time to return to zero. Also, the patients aren’t really aware of this. The Oprah show did us a favor by pointing it out.”

About 150,000 Americans a year will undergo gastric bypass surgery, which can be a lifesaving procedure for morbidly obese people who are 100 pounds or more overweight. The surgery reduces the stomach to the size of a walnut so that patients can’t eat as much and feel full after about an ounce of food.

The episode of the Oprah show discussed how patients feel faster alcohol absorption after gastric bypass because of their smaller stomachs. This physiological change could also contribute to a psychological problem referred to as “addiction transfer.” In the case of gastric bypass patients, the addiction of binge eating, an issue for many morbidly obese patients, can be “transferred” into an alcohol addiction.

Gastric bypass alters a number of physiological functions in the body that may explain this change, in particular a decrease in the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which is most responsible for alcohol metabolism and is also most present in the liver and the stomach.
Another cause for concern, Morton pointed out, is that not only do patients get more relaxed socially from drinking alcohol, but this relaxation also happens inside the body. The lower esophageal sphincter tone decreases and gastric emptying increases when alcohol is consumed, potentially allowing patients to eat more food.

“Patients have to be careful with alcohol,” Morton said. “They’ll become tipsy a lot easier. Please don’t ever drive after drinking. Also, they need to know the potential for weight gain from alcohol.”

In addition to the alcohol study, Morton will be presenting the results of a second gastric bypass study that found an improvement in cardiac risk factors in adolescents after gastric bypass surgery. The second presentation was made June 13 at the same meeting in San Diego.

Press release source

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