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By Matthew Rees

Food and Health Fact #129: The potential rewards and risks of bariatric surgery

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Obesity is more commonly being treated in the United States with bariatric surgery, which typically involves sealing off much of the stomach so it can only hold about an ounce of food. An observational study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (and written up in the New York Times) showed that over a period of 10 years, a group of 650 extremely obese individuals (median BMI of 44) who had the surgery experienced a 22.4 percent reduction in body weight, compared to a 4.6 percent reduction in a control group that did not have the surgery. (Other studies have shows less impressive results.)

But these procedures are not without risk. Data from the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery shows that nearly 17 percent of bariatric surgeries need to be revised (making them the third-most common type of this surgery). And the study published last week showed that within a year of having the surgery, 8.5 percent of patients had experienced what’s known as a “major adverse cardiovascular event” (MACE) while four of them had died from “surgical complications.”

Another reason for caution: While there were 256,000 bariatric procedures in 2019 (the most recent data available), approximately 100 million American adults are obese.