Bypass disease

Intestinal bypass surgery as a treatment for morbid obesity was quite popular from 1965 to 1975 in the United States. The procedure was successful in reducing body weight but was controversial because of a high rate of complications which included an arthritis-dermatitis syndrome. Herein we review the knowledge garnered from a study of the complications from intestinal bypass surgery. Emphasis is placed on an analysis of the clinical manifestations, and the pathogenesis of the arthritis-dermatitis bypass syndrome, and how bypass disease may serve as a model for immune complex-mediated disease and for extra-intestinal complications in other enteropathies.