Bariatric Surgery Remains Significantly Underutilized
According to the article Bariatric Surgery Remains Significantly Underutilized by Dr. Ninh Nguyen published in the May 2014 issue of Connect the official news magazine for ASMBS (American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery), it is estimated that bariatric surgery is only being performed on approximately 1 percent of surgically eligible patient population.
The good news is the number of bariatric procedures grew by about 15 percent in the U.S. between 2011 and 2013, according to new estimates from the ASMBS. The bad news is bariatric surgery remains one of the most underutilized treatments for disease the world has ever known.
The Star Advertiser just published in article called Bariactric Surgery Not Just For Weight Loss by Susan Essoyan. The article talks about a growing number of Hawaii residents are resorting to bariatric surgery, not just for weight loss, but to tackle a host of medical problems related to obesity, in particular diabetes. The procedure has been shown to have a dramatic and often immediate effect on that chronic and potentially crippling disease.”
According to the Hawaii Information Corp., the cases of bariatric surgery in Hawaii has almost doubled since 2005. In 2005, there were 285 cases done and in 2013 540. Dr. Fowler was also featured in the article and he says, “That’s still just a tiny fraction — roughly 1 percent — of the population considered medically eligible for bariatric surgery.”
The misconceptions of bariatric surgery are evident in the general public and even seen in this Star Advertiser article. We feel that Dr. Nguyen put it best in his blog article by saying:
We continue to make strides in improving patient understanding of bariatric and metabolic surgery, but old notions or misperceptions still exists among patients. While the safety of bariatric surgery has improved significantly over the past decade, some patients consider surgery overly dangerous even though the mortality rate is now even less than that of laparoscopic cholecystectomy and hip replacement, two of the most common operations performed in the United States.
Surgery is not an easy decision. However, we hope to make the decision more informed by educating patients not only on the pros and cons of surgery, but on the dangers and risks of obesity itself.
Joelle Salis -
3 1/2 years ago Dr. Fowler preformed the lap-band surgery on me. Till today I tell everyone that is the BEST decision j have ever made. It took a while to train myself but I wanted this so much it wasn’t as hard as I thought. I have since lost 123lbs.
Aloha Surgery (t) -
Aloha Joelle,
thanks so much for commenting and giving us such a FABULOUS update on you! We are so happy to hear about your success!! We will share this comment with our Facebook friends! –Aloha Surgery team