Does Bariatric Surgery Save Lives?

Does bariatric surgery save lives for those who are morbidly obese? That's been an important question as the procedure has become increasingly popular in the last decade. Some studies have shown that there is a benefit, but a new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that midlife patients are the least likely to extend their lives through the surgery.

Most of the earlier benefits were in younger women, the researchers said. The researchers in this study looked at case histories of 850 older, high-risk patients with an average Body Mass Index (BMI) of 49.5 and an average age of 54.7 years.  A BMI of 25 to 29 is considered overweight; anything over that is obese.

The researchers found that 11 of the patients died within 30 days of the surgery. Of the other patients, they did not live significantly longer a comparison group of men who didn't have the surgery.

The researchers cautioned that the patients were super obese – many had a BMI above 50 – so they were pretty sick to start with.  Still, it's a cautionary note for those who are considering this procedure.