How Surgery is Used for Treating Morbid Obesity

Obesity occurs when the energy generation exceeds the energy requirement of the body for physical activity and growth. As a result there is an accumulation of fat, which is stored as adipose tissue. The excessive adipose tissue may be distributed generally all over the body or it may be localized. In women the excessive adipose tissue is distributed predominantly in the lower part of the trunk and extremities, while in men it is frequently more pronounced in the upper part of the trunk, often sparing the extremities.

Obesity can be caused by various diseases of the hypothalamus, and other endocrine diseases of the thyroid, adrenals, pancreas, gonads etc. However the most common cause is due to overeating habits which are imbibed at an early age. Psychological factors also play an important role whereas a person uses food as a substitute for the satisfaction that ordinarily would be derived from other sources. Increased food intake could also be manifestation of depression, anxiety, and the resulting obesity may aggravate the tendency towards isolation or the ineffectiveness of performance.

Surgery is one of the methods used for the treatment of morbid obesity. In this article, you will know the basic information about how surgery is used in morbid obesity. Morbid obesity is a situation where a person is more than twice the normal weight for height. The death rate among these individuals is twelve times more than an obese person of the same age and the sex.

Severe obesity can predispose a person to variety of serious disorder ranging from coronary, artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, mellitus, to marked osteoarthritis of the same weight bearing joints, respiratory distress, gall bladder disease and psychological in capacity.

Frequently minor or standard operative procedures are major endeavors because of the anesthetics and preoperative problem directly related to obesity. Surgery for such morbid obesity has evolved over the years. Procedures short circuiting the gastrointestinal tract so that food can be short circuited to the large intestine before absorption can take place had so many disadvantages that it has been all but abandoned. Procedures which cause mechanical restriction like making the stomach smaller either by stapling or stitching it up or by introducing a balloon into it and via an endoscope have become popular. This do not cause any metabolic disturbance by interfering with food absorption or digestion. The patient will lose a considerable amount of weight after these procedures. About a year later the redundant skin and fat is removed. Surgery is usually resorted to if other methods to combat obesity have failed.

Some medical expert are against surgery and others have approved it as a suitable and best remedy for severe obesity requiring long term solutions. Most of the obesity treating doctors feels that the only way to manage severe obesity long-term is surgery.