Weight Loss Surgery News Blog

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In the annual report on the nation's health from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports on the increased rates of obesity and lack of insurance coverage among young American adults.

- In 2006, 34 percent of adults ages 20 to 24 were uninsured, compared to 29 percent of those ages 25 to 29 and 21 percent of those ages 18 to 19.
- In the past three decades, obesity rates among young adults have tripled, from 8 percent in 1971-74 to 24 percent in 2005-06.

Some general stats mentioned:
- While not increasing as rapidly as in the past decade, obesity rates remain high. More than a third of adults age 20 and older were obese in 2005-2006.
- About 25 percent of adults aged 60 and older had diabetes in 2003-06.

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A new study found that smokers are three times more likely to quit if they get a wake-up call in the form of a heart attack, stroke, lung disease or cancer diagnosis. But obese and overweight people lose two to three pounds at most after being diagnosed with a serious illness like heart disease or diabetes.

The study include data and information about 20,221 overweight or obese people under age 75 and about 7,764 smokers. The study, which looked at weight loss only in people under age 75, was published in The Archives of Internal Medicine.

While only about one in 10 smokers who hadn’t been diagnosed with a serious illness quit cigarettes, almost one-third of smokers who had had a stroke or were diagnosed with cancer, heart disease or lung disease quit, the study found. When smokers were diagnosed with two serious diseases, they were six times more likely to quit than other smokers, the study found.

Obese people lost very little weight after most diagnoses, though they lost up to half a point from their body mass index after finding out they had diabetes. One of the reasons they may not have found a big weight loss is because physician counseling alone is not going to impact weight loss. The evidence for behavioral weight loss treatment suggests an intensive program is necessary.

Link: http://www.robertorizzi.com/obesity-surgery.htm

Hormone therapy after bariatric surgery may help retain muscle during weight loss. Women given growth hormone in the months after gastric banding lost four times less lean body mass.

Despite similar total excess body weight loss in the two groups, those who used growth hormone lost significantly more fat mass.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. These results suggested growth hormone would improve long-term weight loss, since muscle mass burns calories.

The golden goal of every ideal weight-reducing intervention for obesity is to selectively lose body fat while retaining lean body mass. Caloric restriction, which is commonly recommended after bariatric surgery, usually results in catabolism of body proteins. But maintenance of lean body mass is of particular concern for these obese bariatric surgery patients, because of possible complications associated with rapid and sustained weight loss after bariatric surgery.

Link: http://www.robertorizzi.com/obesity-surgery.htm

A new clinical trial reports that losing weight may help relieve urinary incontinence. The trial report was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Several observational studies have shown that obesity is a risk factor for urinary incontinence, while others have reported that obese women who underwent bariatric surgery or were put on low-calorie liquid diets got some relief from incontinence.

Overweight women with episodes of incontinence who took part in a six-month weight loss program reported half as many leakage episodes as before, significantly less than a comparison group reported, according to the new study.

The clinical trial included 338 overweight and obese women. Researchers randomly assigned 226 women to the weight loss program, which included diet, exercise and behavior modification, and 112 participants to the educational program. The average age of the women was 53. The women in the intervention program lost about 8 percent of their body weight, or 17 pounds on average, while those in the control group lost 1.6 percent of their weight, or about 3 pounds. Those in the intervention group experienced a greater decrease in incontinence episodes.

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A German Bariatric Surgery Working Group, looked at the trend in Germany between 2005 and 2007.

In this prospective multicenter observational study, the data obtained for all primary bariatric procedures, including all repeated operations, performed on consecutive patients with morbid obesity at participating hospitals from 2005 to 2007 were collected using an Internet online data registry. Data included perioperative characteristics, type of surgical procedures, and short- and long-term outcomes.

During the study period, 629 surgical procedures were performed at 21 hospitals in 2005, 828 procedures at 32 hospitals in 2006, and 1,666 procedures at 35 hospitals in 2007.

In 2005 and 2006, gastric banding was the most frequently performed operation, followed by the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP). In 2007, a RYGBP was performed in 42.1% of all bariatric procedures.

Around 75% of patients were female; the mean body mass index (BMI) was consistently around 48.

Follow-up data after 12 months were available for 63.8% of the patients in 2005 and 2006 and showed greater reduction of BMI after malabsorptive than after restrictive procedures. Mortality was 0.1% (30 days) and 0.16% (overall).

CONCLUSION: As indicated by the worldwide trend, there is an ongoing change from restrictive bariatric procedures to malabsorptive procedures and sleeve gastrectomy. Although the BMIs of German patients undergoing bariatric surgery appear to be substantially higher than those of patients from most other countries, there were no differences in intraoperative and short-term complications or in overall outcomes during follow-up when compared with published studies.

Source.