Posts tagged bariatric surgery

Bariatric Surgery Trends in California Hospitals

November 1, 2011
Bariatric Surgery Trends

The increasing popularity of weight loss surgery prompted the State of California to examine hospitalization data for bariatric procedures, focusing on patient characteristics, cost, outcomes, and the hospitals where the surgeries were performed. Among the key findings of the report is the fairly recent and rapid shift away from open Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, the rapid [...]

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CMS Considers Coverage of Gastric Sleeve

October 11, 2011
Medicare Coverage for Gastric Sleeve

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said they will consider a proposal to cover laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy as a treatment for obesity for Medicare beneficiaries. The agency is requesting public comments to determine “whether there is adequate evidence, including clinical trials, for evaluating health outcomes of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy for the indications listed [...]

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Hospital to Start Performing Bariatric Surgery on Children

September 30, 2011
Bariatric Surgery in Children

Obesity is such a serious problem in Qatar, that the Hamad Medical Corporation has started performing bariatric surgery on children. The youngest patients so far have been teenagers aged 14 to 18, but over the next few months they plan to operate on children as young as eight years old. The overwhelming demand for bariatric [...]

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Bariatric Surgery Significantly Reduces Cardiovascular Risk

September 12, 2011
Bariatric Surgery Reduces Cardiovascular Risk

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found that obese patients had a 40% improvement in 10-year cardiovascular risk following bariatric surgery, based on a meta-analysis recently reported online in the American Journal of Cardiology. The patients showed an average excess weight loss of more than 50%, which was associated with significant improvement in cardiovascular risk factors, [...]

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Diet and Exercise Programs Useless for Obese

September 6, 2011
Diet Failure in Obese

An opinion article recently published in The Medical Journal of Australia calls for the greater use of bariatric surgery, citing the high failure rate of diet and exercise programs in helping obese people maintain long-term weight loss. Newly discovered biology about the body shows “that once someone becomes overweight, that state is physiologically defended” by [...]

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Top Six Risk Factors for Bariatric Surgery

August 30, 2011
Bariatric Surgery Risk Factors

A new study from the University of California at Irvine evaluated data from more than 100,000 bariatric surgery patients and identified the top six risk factors for bariatric surgery. While researchers agree that bariatric surgery is safer than ever, they also realize that individual risk varies. The study showed that a patient with one or [...]

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Avoiding Perils of Undiagnosed Sleep Apnea in Bariatric Surgical Patients

August 2, 2011
Sleep Apnea Syndrome

A study published online in the July 26, 2011 issue of Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases found that a significant amount of morbidly obese patients who were evaluated for weight loss surgery were previously unaware that they suffered from sleep apnea syndrome (SAS). Sleep apnea syndrome is a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal pauses [...]

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Older Patients Could Benefit from Bariatric Surgery

May 16, 2011
Bariatric Surgery Age

Age over 65 years is not a reason to withhold bariatric surgery, according to a multihospital study of more than 48,000 adults. The study suggests that older adults could potentially benefit from bariatric surgery as it can help improve comorbid illnesses. The findings showed that patients age 65 or older were not at an increased [...]

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IDF Recommends Bariatric Surgery for Type 2 Diabetes

April 4, 2011
International Diabetes Federation

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has issued a position statement recommending bariatric surgery as an appropriate treatment option for people with type 2 diabetes and obesity. This is the first time any major international organization has made recommendations on the use of bariatric surgery as a therapy. The position statement, “Bariatric Surgical and Procedural Interventions [...]

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Weight Loss Surgery Can Reverse Heart Damage

February 16, 2011
Bariatric Surgery Reverses Heart Damage

The results of a new study published in the February 8th issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology indicate that weight loss surgery can reverse heart damage caused by obesity. Obesity is associated with compromised heart function and several forms of heart disease. Not only does excess body weight affect heart health indirectly, [...]

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