Weight Loss Surgery Information

In order to publish relevant news and information to this bariatric surgery website, I am frequently perusing news websites such as Google, Yahoo, PRWeb and others. In all the stories I encounter about bariatric weight-loss surgery, one topic comes up more than most — insurance coverage for weight loss surgery.

We have covered this topic some in the past, as with this story on bariatric surgery insurance. We have also mentioned the insurance factor in various articles about the cost of weight loss surgery.

The reason why the topic of weight loss surgery insurance comes up so often is three-fold, really:

• First, and most obviously, bariatric weight-loss surgery can be expensive, sometimes costing upwards of $30,000 depending on the type of bariatric surgery. Few people can foot such a bill on their own, thus they pursue insurance coverage for bariatric surgery.
• Secondly, there has been a huge increase in the amount of bariatric weight-loss surgeries over the years. We are talking a nearly tenfold increase in such surgeries, just over the last decade. And obviously the more surgeries you have, the more requests for weight loss surgery insurance coverage you get. This steady increase for bariatric surgery insurance coverage has sent the insurance companies scrambling to come up with official policy on the matter.
• Lastly, you also hear a lot about insurance coverage for weight loss surgery because of all the movements for insurance reform in this area. Many groups — both governmental and private — have been pushing for increased coverage for people undergoing bariatric surgery. See story below for a recent example.

Some recent news on the subject of bariatric surgery insurance coverage:

Obesity Action Coalition Calls on Insurers and Employers to Increase Access to Obesity Management Services
TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In light of recent
studies in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) demonstrating a
powerful connection between obesity interventions and reduced deaths, the
Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) calls on insurers and employers to increase
access to the treatments of obesity and morbid obesity.
Read the full story

As always, we will continue to cover the topic of insurance coverage for weight loss surgery and will post updates and breaking news as it occurs.

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Ask any formerly morbidly obese person what his or her life would have been like without weight loss surgery, and they would probably tell you “shorter.”

Weight loss surgeons, and many patients, have long suspected that weight loss surgery prolongs the life of morbidly obese patients by reducing the chance of an early, obesity-related death.

Now there’s significant data to reinforce this belief. Two major studies have revealed that weight loss surgery reduces a patient’s risk for early death.

• The first weight-loss surgery study (conducted in the U.S.) involved more than 15,000 obese people. In this group, the long-term mortality rate dropped by 40% for those who underwent a gastric bypass surgery (as compared to those who did not). The American study followed individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of 33 or higher over a period of 7 years.
• The second weight-loss surgery study (conducted in Sweden) involved more than 4,000 obese people. The Swedish study determined that the obese people who underwent gastric bypass or Lap-Band surgeries had a death rate 29% lower than the obese people who did not have such surgery. The Swedish study followed individuals with a BMI of 34 or higher over a period of 11 years.

Both of these weight-loss surgery studies have been published in the August 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Metabolic Surgery Expected to Play Bigger Role in Treating Type 2 Diabetes And Other Metabolic Diseases

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ — Bariatric surgery is known
to be the most effective and long lasting treatment for morbid obesity and
many related conditions, but now mounting evidence suggests it may be among
the most effective treatments for metabolic diseases and conditions
including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease and obstructive sleep apnea.

“Surgery for severe obesity goes way beyond weight loss. This surgery
results in the complete remission or significant improvement of type 2
diabetes and other life-threatening diseases in most patients. The
Society’s new name and mission reflects this expanded and evolving view of
surgery,” said Kelvin Higa, MD, clinical professor of surgery, UCSF- Fresno
and president of the newly named American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric
Surgery (ASMBS). “People generally don’t think of surgery as a treatment
for diabetes or high blood pressure, but it is, and we expect metabolic
surgery to play an ever increasing role in managing these diseases.”

The ASMBS was formerly known as the American Society for Bariatric
Surgery (ASBS). The name change comes nearly 25 years after the Society was
founded. The Society has nearly 3,000 members, which includes surgeons and
other health professionals including nurses, bariatricians, psychologists,
dieticians and other medical specialists.

Metabolism is the process by which the body coverts food to energy at
the cellular level. The most common metabolic disease is type 2 diabetes,
which occurs when the body does not adequately metabolize or regulate blood
sugars due to lack of insulin or the body’s inability to respond to the
insulin that is produced. According to the American Diabetes Association
(ADA), nearly 21 million people in the U.S. have type 2 diabetes and
another 54 million have pre-diabetes.

Increased body fat is associated with an increased risk for metabolic
diseases. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
(NHANES, 1999-2002), which was conducted by CDC’s National Center for
Health Statistics, more than half (51%) of those with diabetes had a body
mass index (BMI) of 30 or more and about 80 percent of those with a BMI of
35 or more had one or more metabolic diseases.

New research indicates that metabolic surgery may improve insulin
resistance and secretion by mechanisms independent of weight loss — most
likely involving changes in gastrointestinal hormones. Many patients with
type 2 diabetes experience complete remission within days of metabolic
surgery, long before significant weight comes off. This has led to new
thinking that metabolic surgery may also be appropriate for diabetic
individuals who are of normal weight or only slightly overweight.

Walter Pories, MD, professor of surgery and biochemistry at East
Carolina University and past president of the ASMBS, pioneered research
into the effect of bariatric surgery on type 2 diabetes in a landmark paper
published in the Annals of Surgery in 1992. The paper entitled, “Is type II
diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) a surgical disease?” reported the remission of
type 2 diabetes after gastric bypass.

“Twenty-five years ago we were astonished by the curative effect the
surgery had on type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Pories, chairman of the Surgical
Review Corporation, a non-profit corporation that reviews bariatric surgery
centers of excellence. “Today it’s one of the main reasons people have
surgery and I’m confident new research into metabolic surgery will lead to
further advances.”

Most research into metabolic and bariatric surgery has been limited to
patients who are morbidly obese, meaning 100 pounds or more overweight
(body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more) or 75 pounds or more overweight (BMI
of 35 or more) with an obesity-related condition such as type 2 diabetes.

According to a landmark study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association (JAMA) in 2004, bariatric surgery patients showed
improvements in the following metabolic conditions:

– Type 2 diabetes remission in 76.8% and significantly improved in 86% of
patients
– Hypertension eliminated in 61.7% and significantly improved in 78.5%
of patients
– High cholesterol reduced in more than 70% of patients
– Sleep apnea was eliminated 85.7% of patients

Joint disease, asthma and infertility were also dramatically improved
or resolved. The study showed that surgery patients lost between 62 and 75
percent of excess weight.

Earlier this year, 25 international medical organizations and more than
60 leading experts in diabetes and metabolic disease including the ASMBS,
ADA, NAASO - The Obesity Society, and The European Association for the
Study of Diabetes (EASD) convened in Rome, Italy for a summit and consensus
conference to review the medical evidence on the effects of
gastrointestinal operations on diabetes. The group is expected to announce
its findings on the role of metabolic surgery in treating type 2 diabetes
later this year.

“The evidence is extensive. Most studies show prevention, improvement
or remission of type 2 diabetes after surgery with a relatively low rate of
risk in appropriate patients,” said Philip Schauer, MD, immediate past
president of the ASMBS, director of the Cleveland Clinic Bariatric and
Metabolic Institute (BMI), and one of the organizers of the Rome summit.
“Metabolic surgery may be the key to battling the twin epidemics of obesity
and diabetes, and surgery is becoming safer and safer.”

According to a recent study from the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality (AHRQ), the mortality rate associated with bariatric surgery
dropped by a staggering 78.7 percent, from 0.89 percent in 1998 to 0.19
percent in 2004. Meanwhile, the mortality rate from morbid obesity was
reduced by 89 percent after bariatric or metabolic surgery, according to a
study published in the Annals of Surgery in 2004.

In 2006, the ASMBS reports an estimated 177,600 people in the U.S. had
bariatric surgery. Less than 1 percent of those who meet the criteria for
surgery actually have surgery. About 15 million or 1 in 50, adults in the
U.S. have morbid obesity, which is associated with more than 30 other
diseases and conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, sleep
apnea, hypertension, asthma, cancer, joint problems and infertility. The
direct and indirect costs to the health care system associated with obesity
are about $117 billion annually.

The most common procedures include gastric bypass, adjustable gastric
band and biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch. Most of these
procedures are performed laparoscopically using minimally invasive
techniques.

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR METABOLIC & BARIATRIC SURGERY (ASMBS)
The ASMBS is a non-profit organization working to advance the quality
of care and ethical treatment of people with obesity and obesity-related
and metabolic diseases and conditions. The ASMBS educates health
professionals and consumers about the dangers of obesity and metabolic
diseases and the risks and benefits of bariatric and metabolic surgery. The
Society develops and promotes high quality standards and practices that
lead to improved patient outcomes and supports research into emerging
treatments for obesity and metabolic diseases. For more information about
the ASMBS visit http://www.asmbs.org.

CONTACT: Keith Taylor
(212) 527-7537

Vanessa Kelepecz
(212) 527-7544

SOURCE: American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS)

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Keith-Thomas Ayoob, an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in NYC, has weighed in on bariatric surgery in children.

His commentary comes in the wake of the 12-year-old Texas girl who had liposuction and then Lap-Band surgery in Mexico. The 12-year-old girl, often referred to as the “Lap Band girl,” has become a quasi-celebrity due to the extensive news media coverage surrounding her surgery. It’s nice to finally have a qualified scientific opinion on the subject.

You can read Mr. Ayoob’s commentary on the ABC News website. Here’s an excerpt:

Brooke’s body is now losing weight the same way everyone’s body loses weight, by taking in fewer calories than her body needs. She could have done that before she went under the knife three times. Brooke supposedly tried dieting in the past, but nothing worked. But she was only 12 years old. How many sustained efforts could there have been? How many changes were made in the home environment to help her?

Read the full story here

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Yesterday I saw a CNN story about the 12 year old girl who underwent Lap Band surgery recently. I meant to blog about the story yesterday but forgot. Then I got a reminder this morning when her story appeared on another news channel.

Apparently, she is becoming quite the celebrity.

But this is actually the second case (that we know of) where a 12-year-old girl had Lap Band surgery. We blogged about a similar news story back in the beginning of July. That story was about a 12-year-old girl from Washington State who underwent a Lap Band surgery — in Tijuana, Mexico. See blog post titled 12-Year-Old Girl Has Lap Band Surgery.

The more recent story is about a girl in Texas, and for some reason this case has exploded onto the media scene while the previous story went largely unnoticed by the country. Here is a story on a Fox News website about the girl. You can also see a video interview with the girl on CNN’s website.

Publisher’s note: The owners of this website do not condone or condemn weight loss surgery in patients so young. We remain neutral on the subject and merely gather information for your own personal research.

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