Is Gastric Bypass Surgery Safe?

Posting Date: 03/08/1999

Michelle: I'm quite a bit overweight, and I have adult-onset diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea. My doctor has been talking about gastric bypass surgery, and I wanted to know if you have any statistics on its success or failure?

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Dr. Dean: Gastric bypass, which used to be known as stomach stapling, is a serious operation which should only be used as a last resort for people who have chronic health problems - like heart disease or high blood pressure - which are being exacerbated by their weight. Specifically, it's for people who are 100 pounds or more overweight.

There are various methods for doing a gastric bypass, and some were originally condemned because they created blind loops in the intestines, which collected bacteria, and you got infections.

Also, a person could have a bypass and still not lose weight, depending on how you modify your eating habits. Just having the operation changes how you eat, so postoperative support groups are very important. I would be wary of any surgeon who just wants to do the operation and then send you home without an appropriate support group.

The other thing you need to know is that the death rate on the table is higher for this procedure than it is for other operations. The reason for this is that you're dealing with a group of people who are already a bad surgery risk because of their poor health and obesity.

Of course, the risk will vary depending on the individual patient and the surgeon, but I've seen studies in which the operative death rate was as high as five percent, which means you may have a 1-in-20 chance of not coming off the table. So this is serious stuff. It's not for someone who wants to lose 20 or 30 pounds.