A Look at Bariatric Surgery Complications

• Weight loss reasons - improvement of personal appearance, of physical fitness and of general health.
• Empty calories - the content of high-energy foods with poor nutritional content, typically from processed carbohydrates or fats, such as junk foods.
• Scale - used to measure the weight of a person, often to gauge the effectiveness of a weight loss program.
• Best Bet Diet - become popular in the Multiple Sclerosis world, and emphasizes that eating the wrong food is thought to lead to a lack of the nutrients that help to keep your immune system in control, and the wrong food can also cause the immune system to attack your body.
• Food - material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy.
• Fen-phen - a former anti-obesity drug consisting of fenfluramine and phentermine. The U.S. FDA requested its withdrawal from the market in September 1997 after reports of valvular heart disease and pulmonary hypertension.

Although many patients have few problems after bariatric surgery, there is the potential for complications, both small and large, just as there is with any surgical procedure. Minor complications can include dietary intolerance, hair loss, dry skin, menstrual irregularities, or pain. Other complications that may occur include dumping, stenosis, a narrowing of the gastric pouch's outlet, vitamin or mineral deficiencies and anemia, gallstones, and vomiting caused by stretching the pouch.

More serious risks, ones that may need emergency attention, include bleeding, blood clots, infection, leakage of stomach acids, bowel obstructions, or hernia. Additional surgeries may be needed to correct any health problems that occur because of these complications. Of course, death is a risk as well, although the risk is less than one percent. Patients with a very high BMI and/or severe medical conditions are at the highest risk, but death can also occur in any patient.

Although significant weight loss occurs for nearly all bariatric surgery patients, regaining the weight is also a risk. Patients who do not maintain their lifestyle changes and eating behaviors may fall back into old habits and find that the scale is beginning to creep back up. Although significant weight gain after the initial weight loss is fairly infrequent, those who do experience it may have feelings of failure and depression.

Bariatric Surgery Info provides detailed information on bariatric surgery, including cost, patients, centers, diet, financing, and complications, as well as specific procedures like laparoscopic and bypass surgery. Bariatric Surgery Info is the sister site of Gastric Bypass Surgery Web.