The term “morbid obesity” is used to describe severe, abnormal and debilitating obesity. Individuals suffering with this condition are prone to develop different medical problems through their lives. The life expectancy of the severely obese people is decreased by 10 to 15 years, mainly because of increased incidence of heart attacks, strokes, hypertension and diabetes. Severely obese people also tend to develop severe arthritis in the joints of ankles, knees, hips and lower spine, due to excessive weight bearing. Self image is poor and depression may result.
Many supervised diet and exercise programs, behaviour modification programs, psychotherapy, hypnosis, group therapy and other modalities are in existence. However, some people cannot lose weight by dieting. Surgical procedures have been developed to help people who fail medically-controlled weight reduction programs. Obesity surgery is the only proven long-term effective treatment for morbid obesity.
The purpose of obesity surgery is to restrict food intake or decrease the absorption of nutrients. Surgical procedures include intestinal bypass, gastric bypass and gastroplasty. These procedures involve cutting, stapling and/or bypassing portions of the gastrointestinal tract. They produce permanent changes and are not easily reversed. Gastric Banding is an alternate procedure that restricts the functional stomach volume, but avoids the use of stomach staples. A band is placed around the stomach to form a small pouch and a small opening to the rest of the stomach. It is readily reversed by removing the band.
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