Morbid obesity: a surgical perspective

Morbid obesity is a chronic illness of multifactorial aetiology which is defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 40 kg/sq.m. Non-surgical treatments for this condition have been shown to be ineffective. Surgery is the only effective treatment and obtains the best long-term outcomes. Surgery is indicated when BMI is greater than 40, or BMI is greater than 35 with significant associated co-morbidities. Four types of operations are currently performed: restrictive, malabsorptive, combined procedures (malabsorptive-restrictive) and motility-reducing pro-cedures. With restrictive procedures (adjustable gastric banding and vertical banded gastroplasty), patients can expect a long-term excess weight loss of 44-68%; for combined procedures (Roux-en-Y gastric by-pass) this is 60-70%, whereas for malabsorptive procedures (bilio-pancreatic diversion with or without duodenal switch), this is 75-80%. Intra-gastric stimulation is the least invasive treatment, but induces the lowest excess weight loss (32%) in the first two years after the operation. Gastric banding offers the best results when balancing risks and benefits. All procedures are now performed laparoscopically with comparable results to open surgery. The overall mortality rate in specialized centers is less than 0.3%. Different techniques are indicated according to BMI and the patient's eating habits. Surgery for morbid obesity has proved to improve quality of life and significantly reduce associated co-morbidities.