Bariatric surgery in the Armed Forces: Reshaping the SHAPE!

The Indian Armed Forces is an extremely fit fighting force. However, due to some factors like injuries or lack of physical activities, a very small percentage of serving population, who fall under the morbidly obese category, is offered bariatric surgery if diet changes and exercises fail to achieve satisfactory weight reduction. In the absence of a study to look into this cohort who have undergone bariatric surgery, a need is felt to estimate the effects of bariatric surgery on body mass index (BMI), co-morbidities and employability of these patients.

This is a retrospective study of patients, who underwent bariatric surgery over a ten-year period at a service hospital with super specialty services and followed-up for a period of minimum of a year after the surgery.

The study included a total of 35 patients. Their mean body weight and BMI reduced significantly as compared to the pre-operative status. Though there was a significant improvement in the control of diabetes mellitus (p < 0.001) and obstructive sleep apnoea (p = 0.002); hypertension, though fared better, failed to achieve a statistical significant value (p = 0.074) after the surgery. Twenty-eight (80 %) of patients returned back to their active duties.

Bariatric surgery stands as a valid option for management of obese patients with good clinical outcomes and no major morbidity and mortality was observed in the 30-day post-operative period.