ShareBy Majd Othman
KUWAIT: Over the years, several people have lost their lives during bariatric surgery whether locally or abroad, which has led many scared patients to hesitate in undergoing these types of surgeries. It is also better to follow a healthy lifestyle to lose weight, but some obese patients have special conditions that do not allow them to lose weight through dieting and exercise.
Kuwait Times spoke to Dr Waleed M Malallah, consultant general surgery, laparoscopic and bariatric surgery, and discussed with him the risks of bariatric surgery and if it can be dangerous. Dr Malallah explained what increases the risk while undergoing these types of surgeries are the types of diseases the patient suffers from.
Dr Waleed M Malallah"There are patients with high body mass index, which means they are super obese, or there are people who have comorbidities, which are diseases related to obesity, like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, etc. These things increase the risk associated with bariatric surgeries, not to mention age and history of previous bariatric surgeries," he said.
Therefore, Dr Malallah pointed out each patient has to be evaluated in a proper fashion, in addition to addressing and optimizing each risk factor the patient has before the surgery in order to prevent any incidents. "You can't walk into a clinic and have your surgery the next day without a proper evaluation," he warned.
On the other hand, Dr Malallah discussed the health effects after undergoing bariatric surgery. "Looking at the bigger picture, any surgery that relates to bariatric surgery has a risk benefit ratio - there is no surgery that has zero side effects, but the benefits of the surgery always outweigh the risks. Because if we look at people with a body mass index above 30 and those with comorbidities, we know the risk of being obese and having a high BMI are more dangerous to the patient's health than the risk of the operation," he argued.
"I will recommend the surgery to people who meet the criteria, because I will always tell the patients that the harm the obesity will do to your health is far more than the any side effects they will suffer from any surgery. There are criteria for patient selection - they have to meet a certain BMI, as it was recently adjusted, so if you have a body mass index of 30 with comorbidities, or a BMI of35 without any comorbidities, the doctor can offer surgery. However, doctors reject people who do not meet these criteria," he said.
Side effects
About the side effects of bariatric surgeries, Dr Malallah said: "The surgery is safe overall, while in the long term, we worry about some nutritional deficiencies, like deficiency of vitamin B and sometimes iron and minerals, but we address this by giving supplements and replacements. Sometimes you can have side effects in the short term after the surgery, such as a small risk of wounding, but we address this by giving antibiotics and making sure patients are educated about this."
