Gastric Bypass Surgery Statistics

The growing number of the obese population has also heightened the difficulty of their choices. A good number of researchers have shown that diets, exercises and medicines have not always been as effective as they say they are. Some would even cost you a fortune without giving fair results. However, surgeons and a team of doctors would require that one must have tried and failed significant weight loss activities, medications and approaches before testing and deciding if they are qualified to undergo bariatric surgery. The surgery must be the patient’s last resort to achieve weight loss. It would be best that the patient consult and have a comprehensive talk with his or her doctor to determine if the surgery is the best approach for them. Failure to do so, or inaccuracy in the determination if this the best approach for a patient, would heighten the risks and dangers in having the operation.

Ninety percent of dieters have stated that they still easily gain the weight they have lost. Dieticians have made a warning that this 'yo-yo phenomena' might upset the metabolism of the patient, decreasing their ability to lose weight in the future. This is the reason why people started looking at gastric bypass surgery as a quick solution to their long lingering dilemma, or so they thought. Yes, the surgery will only take a while, but the recovery after the surgery could take a lifetime.

Since then, many morbidly obese patients have availed themselves of this life-saving weight loss surgery. In a year, there are approximately a thousand operations done, each of which costs four to six thousand dollars. The number of surgeries performed is expected to increase exponentially along with the growing number of the obese population. While the demand for gastric bypass surgery increases, surgeons fear that time might come where more of the present population would require surgery with only a few qualified and experienced surgeons to accommodate the demand. If such a siutation happens, complications, risks, and costs are likely to increase making it less affordable and viable to the public.

Hospital revenue is also expected to increase along with the increase in the number of surgeries being required by the patients. The revenues are expected to reach in the neighborhood of 1.8 billion dollars, and could probably increase another 80 percent in the following year.

The fatality rate of gastric bypass surgery is 1 in 200. Surgeons however believed that this might be inaccurate or even fraudulent, since some of the causes of deaths listed on death certificates as unrelated are actually found to be gastric bypass surgery complications after a thorough examination. Poor physician reporting might also be a probable cause of this questionable fatality rate. Surgeons believed that the fatality rate for a surgical procedure with such complexities must be much higher than this.