Slimming ops increase five-fold

Slimming operations for morbidly obese people have increased five-fold in most developed countries, a report into the surgery says today.

Writing a clinical update in the Lancet journal today, German researchers say this increase has resulted in evidence of fewer deaths in dangerously overweight people.

They refer to two recent studies which showed that weightloss surgery reduced mortality in morbidly obese patients by 29 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

Dr Michael Korenkov from the University of Mainz and Dr Stefan Sauerland of the University of Witten say the types of surgery vary between developed countries and include gastric restrictive procedures, which reduce food intake; and malabsorption, procedures that reduce food uptake from the digestive tract.

They argue that the success of slimming surgery used to be measured purely on weight loss but there has been a shift to include related conditions.

“Today, research emphasis is more on the effect of surgery on obesity-related comorbidities, which can affect metabolic, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal and urological organ systems,” the researchers write.

“Additionally, the psychological benefits of weight loss are being investigated.”

In the UK it has been estimated that more than 12 million adults and one million children will be obese by 2010 unless steps are taken to improve health.