[Obesity: indications for surgery]

Over the last thirty years, successive surgical techniques have been tried to find an answer to the problems caused by extreme obesity. The advantages and disadvantages of jejuno-ileal, bilio-pancreatic and gastric bypass, of gastroplasty as well as of intragastric balloons and of plastic surgery for the treatment of obesity are discussed. The necessity of long-term follow-up studies, allowing a better evaluation of surgical the impact of obesity on treatment for morbidity and mortality rates, remains extremely important.