Benefits of Weight Loss Surgery

The effects of severe clinical obesity are life threatening. While there are some risks to weight loss surgery most medical experts support bariatric procedures to reduce the long term risks caused by morbid obesity. Bariatric surgery provides long term weight loss options for those who decide to undergo a surgical weight loss procedure.


Below are a few of the many benefits of Weight Loss Surgery:

• According to long-term studies (those with at least 5 years of follow-up with patients), expected weight loss after surgery is between 50 to 80% of the excess body weight.

• A 2004 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that bariatric surgery improved or resolved type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea and high cholesterol in the vast majority of morbidly obese patients. Key findings from the study include:

  • Type 2 diabetes was resolved in more than 76 percent of patients.

  • Hypertension was resolved in more than 61 percent of patients.

  • Obstructive sleep apnea was resolved in more than 85 percent of patients.

  • High cholesterol levels decreased in more than 70 percent of patients

• Key findings from a May 2004 Consensus Conference, "Gastrointestinal Surgery for Severe Obesity," and published in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons include: Bariatric surgery is the most effective therapy available for morbid obesity and can result in improvement or complete resolution of obesity co-morbidities
  
  
• Obesity and can result in improvement or complete resolution of obesity co-morbidities.
  
  
• A study in the September 2004 issue of the Annals of Surgery found an 89 percent reduction in the risk of death in patients who had bariatric surgery, compared to those who did not, as well as a reduced risk for developing cardiovascular disease, cancer, and endocrine, infectious, psychiatric, and mental disorders, compared to those who did not have bariatric surgery.