Treatment Goals for Bariatric Surgery - Surgery abroad with Globe Health Tours.

Bariatric Surgery Goals for Weight Loss Treatment

Surgical treatment is medically necessary because it is the only proven method of achieving long term weight control for the morbidly obese.

Surgical treatment is not a cosmetic procedure. Surgical treatment of severe obesity does not involve the removal of adipose tissue (fat) by suction or excision. Bariatric surgery involves reducing the size of the gastric reservoir, with or without a degree of associated malabsorption. Eating behavior improves dramatically. This reduces caloric intake and ensures that the patient practices behavior modification by eating small amounts slowly, and chews each mouthful well.

The success of surgical treatment must begin with realistic goals and progress through the best possible use of well designed and tested operations. These have been worked out over the last thirty years, and are now standardised, clearly defined procedures, with well recognised and documented outcome results.

The prevention of secondary complications of morbid obesity is an important goal of management. Therefore, the option of surgical treatment is a rational one supported by the time honored principle that diseases which harm call for therapeutic intervention that, while vigorous, is less harmful than the disease being treated.

The biological basis for morbid obesity is unknown, though recent work has demonstrated a genetic component of between 25 and 50%. Several studies confirm the influence of genetically determined proteins produced by the fat cell to be among the many mechanisms which have a place in the control of satiety. These studies confirm that morbid obesity is a disease, not a disorder of will power, as sometimes implied.

The physiologic, biochemical and genetic evidence is overwhelming that morbid obesity is a complex disorder. Contributing causes include inheritance and environmental, cultural, socioeconomic and psychological factors.