What are the drawbacks of obesity surgery?
Intuitively, one might think that major gastrointestinal surgery, such as gastric bypass, would be too technically demanding in extremely obese patients, and would put them at too great a risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality. This assumption is incorrect. The postoperative mortality rate of gastric bypass ranges from 0·1 to 0·2 per cent, depending on the extent of the procedure[10]. Early complications include respiratory insufficiency, pulmonary embolism, leakage at the gastrojejunal anastomosis and bleeding from staple lines. Late complications include internal hernia, nutritional deficiency and, in the case of gastric banding, slippage of the band with pouch formation. The incidence and severity of complications correlate with the training, overall expertise and bariatric caseload of the surgeon. The unanticipated safety and effectiveness of obesity surgery has triggered, mostly through pressure from patients, a second epidemic – an epidemic of bariatric surgery. In the USA
