When I was a general surgery resident in the early 90's in Los Angeles, I assisted on some of the early gastric bypass procedures for weight loss. At that time, I remember thinking that we had a lot of surgical complications, and that the anesthesia seemed dangerous. The procedure was thought of as "radical", and was undertaken in only the most extreme supermorbid obesity cases. I really never thought it would catch on. Well, I was wrong. Since then, advances in surgical technique and anesthesia have made it a common, everyday procedure at many hospitals with a fairly acceptable complication rate. More importantly, it's no longer perceived by the public as some radical, extreme measure and has gained widespread acceptance in many communities. Pop singers like Carnie Wilson have undergone the procedure with great success. Over 100,000 such procedures were done in the US in 2003. Sure, it's still a real operation with serious risks, and there are the occasional well-publicized disasters.
In my experience, patients lose weight for about 1.5 years, and then plateau at a new "set point," and fail to lose any further substantial weight after that. This is the time for plastic surgery consultation. When I'm taking their histories, I'm always astounded at how the procedure has changed their lives. "I'm not on those blood pressure meds anymore and my diabetes has gone away" is a frequent scenario for these patients. So what about all of the excess skin left on the now-shrunken body? That's where plastic surgery comes in. Last year, over 52,000 post-gastric bypass body contouring procedures were done. These kinds of procedures are very commonly performed in our practice, and in the days ahead we will go over the "real deal" on these procedures.
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