Gastric Bypass Surgery

General Risks of Obesity Surgery

Weightloss surgery is a treatment option suitable for some persons with obesity. You and your doctor must work together to determine if you would benefit from obesity surgery, which is a major operation that can change your life in many ways.

You must know about the risks and benefits of the surgery and the commitment you will have to make to lifestyle change and life-long follow-up with your medical team.1 You must also take into account the health risks of being severely obese, and the health benefits you can gain from losing excess weight.

General Risks:

• Complications caused by the surgery may be as high as 10 percent or more.

• Complications requiring a hospital stay of seven or more days were reported in 1.35% of patients from the IBSR database. Some of the complications involve the heart or liver, rupture of blood vessels in the lungs, infection surrounding the diaphragm area, leaking and bleeding of the stomach and intestines, blood clotting of veins, and blockage of the small intestine.

• Complications requiring a hospital stay of less than seven days were reported in 5.28% of patients from the IBSR database. These complications include breathing difficulties, wound infections, and injury to the spleen.

• Ten to 20% of patients have been reported to need follow-up operations to correct complications such as abdominal hernias.

• Gallstones develop in more than one-third of patients as a result of losing a large amount of weight or from losing weight quickly. Gallstones can be prevented by taking medication.

• Anemia, osteoporosis and other bone disease are nutritional deficiencies that develop after the surgery due to long-term loss of absorptive function.2 Nutritional deficiencies, which occur in almost 30% of patients, can be prevented with proper attention to vitamin and mineral intake, especially vitamins B12 and D, calcium, folate and iron.

• Women of childbearing age should be aware that quick weight loss and nutritional deficiencies can harm a developing fetus.

• The VBG and RGB death rate is relatively low.4 Within 30 days of surgery, death occurred in less than a quarter of one percent (0.17%) of patients in the IBSR database. Pulmonary embolism was the most frequent cause of death.
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