Weight Loss Surgery: Benefits, Risks, and Recovery

What are the benefits of weight loss surgery?

According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), a weight loss procedure can significantly improve your health and free you to pursue an active and happy life.

Benefits of bariatric surgery may include:

• Significant and lasting weight loss: By changing your gastrointestinal anatomy, certain bariatric procedures allow for significantly less food consumption, and affect changes in your intestinal hormones that reduce hunger and increase your feeling of fullness. Studies show that more than 90 percent of bariatric patients are able to maintain a long-term weight loss of 50 percent excess body weight or more, when combined with dietary and lifestyle changes.
• Improves or resolves related conditions: Bariatric surgery has proven to significantly improve diseases caused or worsened by obesity, including heart disease, hypertension, stroke, sleep apnea, arthritis, asthma, acid reflux and more. It has also shown to drastically reduce—or even eliminate—type 2 diabetes.
• Longer life: Several large studies of severely obese people have found that those who have had weight loss surgery have a significantly lower risk of death than those who have not. The exceptionally low mortality rate is remarkable, considering that most patients affected by severe obesity are in poor health and have one or more life-threatening diseases at the time of their surgery.

What are some of the risks of weight loss surgery?

All surgeries carry some risk. Your bariatric surgeon will review the potential complications and risks with you well before your surgery. Pneumonia, blood clots, infection, bleeding, leaking at staple lines, as well as ulcers, hernia and gallstones may occur, but are infrequent. Generally, the risks associated with weight loss surgery are significantly less than the risk of remaining morbidly obese.

How long is recovery and follow up care?

For most people, the average hospital stay is one or two days. While most patients go back to work within two weeks, the actual length of time will be determined by your surgeon. There are also some restrictions that apply.

We also offer individual and group support with others on the weight loss journey. And, even as years pass and you continue to meet your goals, we’ll be right here to monitor, support and celebrate your success.

Need more information?

• UPMC Harrisburg Weight Management Center: 717-909-0290
• UPMC Carlisle Bariatric Surgery Associates: 717-988-8185

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