Posts Tagged ‘bariatric surgery’

The noise coming at a person considering metabolic and bariatric surgery can be deafening. Intense emotions about these procedures can influence personal decision making and even the scientific literature. The best antidote is to focus on the facts. A new study in PLOS Medicine provides a well-validated set of nine key outcomes for metabolic surgery. The […]

Last week we met a brave physician guarding the floodgates of demand for obesity care. He told us: “If all the patients that need bariatric surgery demanded it, they would bankrupt our health system.” This is a jarring perspective from a primary care physician in leadership at a large, nonprofit health plan. He confirmed that they are quite […]

Among the top ten papers to be presented in the ASMBS portion of ObesityWeek 2016 on Wednesday is a case-control study of long-term mortality after bariatric surgery. We expect no big surprises in this study, just another set of compelling data affirming the survival benefit conferred by bariatric surgery documented in the landmark Swedish Obese […]

The world’s leading experts in surgical obesity care will be presenting the latest advances in surgical obesity care at ObesityWeek beginning Monday in New Orleans. Already one of the most potent tools for treating obesity, surgery is evolving into a critical tool for putting type 2 diabetes into remission. With broader indications for surgery, research on […]

Speaking at the 13th Annual Bariatric Summit in Nashville yesterday, Ted Kyle tallied a score of three pluses and two minuses for people living with obesity under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. On the plus side of the ledger, Kyle identified three key gains: More People Have Insurance. For the first time in recent history, […]

As the epidemic of type 2 diabetes has grown in parallel with unprecedented rates of obesity, physicians have long prioritized controlling blood glucose over helping a patient manage his weight. Type 2 diabetes care typically takes priority over obesity care in a primary care setting. In some ways, this has been a perfectly rational choice for […]

An impressive new study of ten-year outcomes for bariatric surgery makes us wonder whether it’s caution or fear that is holding people back from choosing to have bariatric surgery. Caution makes perfect sense in thinking about this surgery. Fears are not such good guides. The new study shows that bariatric surgery patients in the VA system […]

The fear of “medicalizing obesity” repeatedly surfaces in writing about obesity and never fails to impress. It surfaces in discussions with health plans worried about about “opening the floodgates” to evidence-based access to care for obesity. It surfaces even in scholarly publications. The latest example is a remarkably naive publication in health: an interdisciplinary journal. In a […]

Bariatric surgery is clearly the most effective option for reversing type 2 diabetes, but for many people, it’s tough to make that leap. So the quest is on to find a less intimidating treatment that delivers the same benefits. A new study in Diabetes Care points to resurfacing the duodenum as a promising possibility. The […]

A careful new case-control study fills important gaps in knowledge about bones at risk after bariatric surgery. Catherine Rousseau and colleagues published their finding in The BMJ that the risk of bone fractures goes up by 30% after bariatric surgery. The site of fractures also shifted to a pattern that is more typically seen in […]