Posts Tagged ‘bariatric surgery’

Bariatric surgery is a relatively safe surgical procedure. Overall, people with obesity who undergo bariatric surgery tend to live longer than those who don’t. Nonetheless, just as with any surgery, complications can occur. Recent data from the MBSAQIP database document a 30-day mortality rate between one and two deaths per thousand patients. New data, presented […]

As severe obesity has grown to take a toll on a growing number of children and teens, clinical care is evolving. In 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics said it plainly. Youth with severe obesity need better access to bariatric surgery. The authors of that position statement conceded that most of the young patients for […]

Care delayed is care denied. The truth of this is obvious in emergency medicine. In the case of a stroke or a traumatic injury, unnecessary delays in care lead to immediate harm. But with a chronic, progressive disease, the harm can be more subtle. Add in systemic bias and delayed care can become quite a […]

Obesity can be very real problem for women who want to have a baby. First of all, it can interfere with getting pregnant. Even when pregnancy becomes a reality, obesity can lead to problems. Preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, postpartum hemorrhage, cesarean delivery, excess fetal growth, stillbirth, congenital anomalies, and neonatal death are all more frequent issues […]

Mandates are very much in the news this week. We’re hearing a lot of angst about vaccine mandates and mask mandates. In some situations, it seems there’s not much room for debate about what to do. Yet we find that even when reality is unyielding, people still have choices to make. So in between the […]

The gap between facts and feelings about bariatric surgery never ceases to amaze. In 2016, we were presenting at a CDC conference in Atlanta, when a prominent family physician interrupted. He wanted to tell us that surgery usually leads to patients regaining all their weight. Or too often, he said, death. We responded by asking […]

Most people – even many healthcare professionals – simply don’t get it. Because the popular concept of bariatric surgery is that it prevents people from eating – just by altering your gut. But the reality is that it works very differently. Bariatric surgery changes the signaling between the brain and the gut in ways that […]

For state employees in Louisiana, this might seem like a big step forward. Or it might be so small that it doesn’t amount to much. Last week, the Governor of Louisiana signed a bill into law that requires the state employee health plan to cover bariatric surgery. However, it comes with some serious limitations. Thousands […]

How rare is it to have serious and thoughtful conversations with primary care providers about obesity? Here’s a clue that it’s rare. Less than one in ten patients who might benefit from bariatric surgery discuss it with their doctor. Yet when this happens, things get better. Not everyone who discusses the surgery goes on to […]

Bias makes us human. It can even help us thrive by recognizing patterns in our lives. But of course, bias is sneaky, reinforcing patterns that keep people down for no good reason. So it is with weight bias – which some people believe causes more harm than obesity itself. One of the ways that weight […]