Interesting Article from Webmd

[Guest guest]

Original article:

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/2731.2476

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

Weight Loss Surgery Adds Years to Life

By Laird on

WebMD Medical News Reviewed By , MD

October 10, 2002 - There's no doubt that stomach-stapling surgery

leads to dramatic weight loss. But new research shows that the

procedure might also add years to life.

As the number of obese people in the U.S. has soared, so has the

popularity of the surgery. In fact, East Carolina University

researchers estimated that the number of people undergoing weight-

loss surgery increased from 40,000 in 2001 to 86,000 this year and

will reach 140,000 next year.

Past research has shown that gastric bypass improves diabetes, high

blood pressure, and other diseases related to excess fat. But the

effect on a person's lifespan has been unknown, until now

To answer that question, researchers at New Hampshire's Dartmouth-

Hitchcock Medical Center first looked at data from previous research

that showed how much a weight an average person loses after having

the surgery. Then they looked at the average life expectancies of

people at various heights and weights. In this way, they could

estimate how much the change in weight caused by surgery would affect

patients' life span.

The results suggest that most people eligible for the surgery would

benefit, says lead researcher G. Darby Pope, MD, surgery resident at

Dartmouth-Hitchcock. " By undergoing the surgery, they will gain life

years, " he said. Pope presented the study this week at a meeting of

the American College of Surgeons in San Francisco.

People with a BMI -- a measure of obesity that takes both height and

weight into account -- over 25 are considered overweight. But

according to U.S. government guidelines, patients should have a BMI

of at least 40, or a BMI of 35 with a related serious disease, to be

eligible for gastric bypass surgery. Most such patients are more than

100 pounds overweight.

The results varied according to the patients' age, gender, and body

mass index (BMI). According to the researchers, a woman with a BMI of

45 at age 40 would gain three years of life. A man of similar age and

size could expect to gain 3.9 years.

These results are better than those obtained by heart disease

surgery, Pope said. But he cautioned that no one should interpret

these findings literally. The actual effects of the gastric bypass

surgery will vary a lot from one individual to another.

Questions about the benefits of gastric bypass surgery will be

answered with more certainty by studies now under way on large groups

of patients, Pope says.

The surgery is getting more popular not only because more people are

obese, but also because surgeons have improved their techniques. In

earlier weight-loss surgery, doctors routed the digestive track past

much of the intestines, resulting in malnutrition.

In the kind of surgery in the Dartmouth-Hitchcock study, most of the

stomach is stapled shut so that food can only enter a small pouch at

the top. A branch of the intestines is connected to this pouch. (The

unused part of the stomach is connected to this branch downstream in

order to drain its fluids.)

Patients vomit if they overeat, but feel full with much less food.

Typically, they lose about three-quarters of their excess weight in

the first year, then gradually gain some back. After ten years or

more, most carry about half the excess weight they had before the

surgery, says Pope.

Patients must take nutritional supplements for the rest of their

lives, and there is a chance of dying from complications of the

surgery. But Pope and his colleagues took this risk of complications

into account in their study and the results suggest that the risk of

death from the procedure are much less than the risk of death from

obesity.

© 2002 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.