Malabsorptive procedures in surgical treatment of morbid obesity

There is no ideal operation for morbid obesity and there probably never will be one. The disease is multifaceted, with unknown polyfactorial etiology. The multitude of surgical methods attests to the frustrations in trying to palliate the morbidly obese. Gastric restriction on its own is proving inadequate for the heaviest patients ("super obese"), for patients with preferences for "sweets," and for patients who have had failure of previous surgery, whether it be jejunoileal bypass or gastroplasty. The current trend toward performing malabsorptive procedures is symptomatic. Experimentation with varying sizes and configurations of gastric remnants in combination with varying lengths of small intestine in continuity is reminiscent of the early experience with jejunoileal bypass. That era has been called by some respected and influential surgeons the "dark ages of surgery." Very few of the tens of thousands of patients would agree with this assessment. Nevertheless, Payne was convinced that the "malignant abuse of all of these operations. . . could result in the abandonment of the only practical method. . . for the treatment of the morbidly obese patient." Jejunoileal bypass operations can be "salvaged" by vigorous medical management. When that fails, there are several surgical options for dealing with the blind loop, short of reanastomosing the bowel. New malabsorptive operations have been developed and are being rigorously scrutinized by relatively few dedicated surgeon-scientists. The most important lesson learned from the many severe late complications of jejunoileal bypass is that operations for morbid obesity need to be studied intensely and for a sufficiently long period of time before they can be considered ready for routine use.