Bariatric Surgery: A Case Study

Obesity is one of the many healthcare issues in America. Obesity has been linked to cause diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes (“Health value of bariatric surgery demonstrated in trials,” 2014). According to the Center of Diseases Control (2016), obesity is classified as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30. The population who is classified above 30 is then subcategorized into moderate obese which is a BMI of 30 to 40 or extremely obese, a BMI greater than 40. In the United States (U.S), healthy eating was not of importance until the rate of obesity began to upsurge at a fast pace and eventually obesity became an epidemic. This led the National Institute of Health (NIH) to focus on eating habits by starting with a decrease …show more content…
Aside from BMI consideration, other factors being considered are co-morobities related to cardiovascular disease or diabetes and patient who had no success with diet and exercises interventions (“Who is a Candidate for Bariatric Surgery,” 2016). Bariatric surgery has become a common recommendation for the morbidly obese population (“Who is a Candidate for Bariatric Surgery,” 2016). According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), bariatric surgery cost insurance companies at least 14,000 dollars however, most insurance companies consider bariatric surgery to attempt to decrease healthcare expenses associated with the morbidities that is caused by obesity. Multiple studies have shown a consistent improvement in patients who get bariatric surgery being able to decrease or even eliminate the pre-surgical co-morbidities. One example is a study by Lieske, Mehta, Milliner et al. (2014), which confirmed that with bariatric surgeries there is “less mortality and a decrease in obesity-related complications, such as diabetes, hypertension, and obstructive sleep apnea” (p. 839) based on randomized control trial. Although bariatric surgery is considered a solution to obesity due to the improvement in patient’s health, there are long-term complications that patients are challenging. Patients’ long term complications vary based on the type of bariatric …show more content…
However, long-term complications from bariatric surgery are being discovered years after the procedure. This has led researchers to study what can be done as early interventions to decrease or eliminate long-term effects of bariatric surgery. There is not much research indicating ways to decrease long-term complications of bariatric surgery. Therefore, an evaluation of the bariatric procedures is needed to determine if among the bariatric interventions there is one with the least long-term