The authors of a study published in the January, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons are proposing a new numerical scoring system to describe the health problems obesity surgery patients (bariatric patients) have before their surgery and to assess improvement or elimination of these problems after
their surgery.
A team of researchers from the Department of Surgery at University of California, Davis in Sacramento assigned a score from 0-5 (with 0 being not present) for each of 17 problems common to patients who are more than 100 lbs. overweight.
The surgeons then operated on 90 patients using the Roux-en-Y technique of gastric bypass and compiled their scores at intervals up to a year after their surgery. Although the study is ongoing (37 patients have reached the 6 month mark) patients improved in a statistically significant way their health problems in nearly all categories, except for diabetes and hyperlipidemia.
This study is one of the first to quantitatively rather than qualitatively measure the improvement in health of patients receiving this type of weight loss surgery. The authors argue that this study adds to accumulating experience that bariatric or weight loss surgery is the best current treatment for morbid obesity.
Copyright 2006 Insidesurgery.com
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