Washington – Stomach surgery to treat obesity, which is soaring in popularity, is much riskier than had been thought, with patients facing a far greater chance of being hospitalized and dying following the operations, according to two large new studies.
One analysis of more than 60,000 California patients found they were twice as likely to require hospitalization after the operations than before, while the second study of federal data from more than 16,000 patients nationwide found the chance of dying after being released from the hospital was significantly higher than earlier studies indicated.
The studies are the largest to examine the risk of hospitalization and death after the surgery, which helps obese people lose weight by reducing the size of their stomachs.
“This is a reality check for people thinking of having obesity surgery,” said David Flum of the University of Washington at Seattle, who led the nationwide study.
Proponents of the operations said the benefits still outweigh the risks for many patients, and efforts are underway to make the procedures safer by more carefully selecting patients and ensuring the procedures are done by the most experienced surgeons.
“We’re talking about patients for whom nothing else works,” said Harvey Sugerman of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, speaking on behalf of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. “They can’t walk. They can’t work. They are miserable. They have diabetes and hypertension, and they die at a much higher rate.
“This operation is the only thing that helps these people.”
