Obesity is classified as non-communicable disease according to WHO and closely associated with comorbidities including diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, fatty liver, sleep apnoea etc. It is also proven to increase risk of having breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and endometrial cancer etc. Obese patients also tend to have shorter life expectancy compared to its non-obese counterpart.
The metabolic setpoint is altered in obese individuals, solely lifestyle modification is not sufficient. Bariatric surgery plays an important role to achieve optimal weight loss and improvement on medical comorbidities. Study also supports the cost-effectiveness of using surgical therapy for severe obesity.
UCH started our first bariatric surgery in 2008, since then over 200 patients received bariatric surgeries of different kinds including laparoscopic gastric banding, laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and laparoscopic sleeve duodenal jejunal bypass. While the perioperative mortality is less than 1%, patients who received bariatric surgery can achieve overall over 70% excessive body weight loss and >55% of patients can have complete diabetic remission. The weight loss and metabolic improvement effect is even more pronounced in bypass surgery. The long-term nutrition and acid reflux problem are minimal with adequate supplementation.
With excellent perioperative and postoperative outcomes, bariatric surgery should be implemented and promoted across different specialties and to the public as a safe and cost-effective option for optimal weight loss and metabolic improvements.
