Bariatric Surgery Patients at Greater Risk of Death from Alcohol, Drugs

By Traci Pedersen
Associate News Editor

Last updated: 10 Jun 2019

  ~ 2 MIN READ

Patients who have undergone Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery — a weight-loss procedure which reduces the size of the stomach and shortens the intestine — will be at greater risk of death from alcohol- or drug-related causes compared to the general public, according to a new study at the University of Pittsburgh.

“Laboratory studies indicate that Roux-en-Y gastric bypass changes the way the body reacts to alcohol and drugs, and our previous work demonstrates an increased risk of self-reported problematic alcohol use and illicit drug use following this surgery,” said senior author Wendy King, Ph.D., associate professor in the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology.

“This study indicates such problems can lead to loss of life.”

The research, published in the journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, also found that fewer than half of those who died had triggered a safety protocol for problematic substance use. Only one of those who died was known to have received treatment for substance use disorder.

“Increasingly with bariatric surgery patients, we’re finding that the tools that clinicians traditionally use to screen for drug or alcohol problems don’t work well to identify those at risk,” said lead author Gretchen White, Ph.D., epidemiologist in the Pitt School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery. “These deaths are an extreme and sad example of a problem that needs to be addressed.”

For seven years, the research team followed 2,458 adults who underwent bariatric surgery. The participants were enrolled in the National Institutes of Health-funded Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery-2 (LABS-2), an observational study of patients receiving weight-loss surgery at one of 10 hospitals across the United States.

Reflecting typical bariatric surgery patients, the majority of the participants were female (79%) and white (86%). At the time of surgery, the median age was 46 years old. During the seven-year follow-up, 10 of the participants died of causes directly related to drug- and alcohol-use, with six unintentional drug overdoses, one intentional overdose, one overdose where the intent was unknown and two deaths from alcoholic liver disease.

All 10 participants had undergone Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, which reduces the size of the stomach and shortens the intestine, and accounted for 72% of the bariatric procedures in the study sample.

The team looked at the deaths in terms of “person-years,” a scientific measure that takes into account both the number of people in a study and the amount of time each person spends in the study.

The drug- and alcohol-related death rate was 89 deaths per 100,000 person-years for the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery patients, compared to 30.5 deaths per 100,000 person-years for the general population matched on age, sex, race and calendar year. On average, the deaths occurred nearly five years post-surgery.

“While drug- and alcohol-related deaths were too rare to identify risk factors, it is noteworthy that the demographics of those who died were similar to the full sample. Based on demographics, bariatric surgery patients should be a low-risk group for substance-related death,”  said King.

The researchers suggest that new clinical screening tools, tailored specifically to bariatric surgery patients, are needed so clinicians can better detect patients at high risk for substance use problems.

For example, White says, current questionnaires ask people about the number and frequency of alcoholic beverages they consume. Since bariatric surgery patients tend to experience the effects of alcohol faster and with fewer drinks than the average person, it might be better to ask about how alcohol makes them feel, if it is interfering with daily activities and whether they or their families and friends think they may have a problem.

In addition, since the deaths occurred many years after surgery, it is especially important that primary care physicians be aware of the particular risks that bariatric surgery patients face in terms of substance use, said co-author Anita Courcoulas, M.D., chief of minimally invasive bariatric surgery at UPMC.

“This is an important issue to recognize in all bariatric surgery patients as there is a clear signal of risk for substance use-related deaths,” said Courcoulas. “Further study is required to understand the precise mechanisms, and prospective tracking of patients is very important to be able to offer more timely intervention.”

Source: University of Pittsburgh

Related: Gastric Bypass Surgery Gone Bad - CBS News

Doctors Suck

Yes they do. Doctors are greedy inept and dangerous. Yes they are. People who trust doctors end up in cemeteries.

Doctors are the third leading cause of death in the US. Google it!

Fat Girl Polka

Oompah oompah oompah she's a fat girl.
Oompah oompah oompah tons of fun.... TONS OF FUN!
When you're finished eating and drinking your coffee.
Oompah oompah oompah fat girl's just begun.

She has a skinny husband. I don't understand the attraction.
Maybe it's probably due to all of that lower fat gut action

Some say it's and eating disorder. Some say it's a glandular disease.
She thinks that she retains water and that's why she has dimples on her knees.

She ordered a double meat Whopper along with and order of fries.
Washed all down with diet soda and that's why she has TREEmensous thighs

My 600 Pound Lives Deaths

Gastric bypass kills 1 in 50 people. That is the death rate for gastric bypass. The mortality rate for all weight loss surgery is unacceptable. The greedy medical industry will tell you that weight loss surgery is safe. They are lying.

Gastric Bypass Surgery Gone Bad - CBS News

In Brazil the death rate from gastric bypass is lower than in the US. Brazilian surgeons are much better than American surgeons.

Mortality rate after open Roux-in-Y gastric bypass: a 10 ...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4123842

In Brazil the 30-day and 10-year mortality rates were 0.55 and 3.34%, respectively, and 53.7% of deaths were related to early or late complications following bariatric surgery. Among these, 42.7% of the deaths were due to sepsis and 24.3% to cardiovascular complications.

Overall, just over half of the deaths were related to the surgery. Anastomotic leak associated with sepsis was the first and thromboembolism was the second cause of early deaths. In the present study, the frequency of sepsis was higher and the frequency of thromboembolism was lower compared to the results of other authors (5,7,25). In most studies, the percentages of death due to infection and thromboembolism vary from 7 to 18% and from 4 to 38%, respectively (5,7,22,26). The lower frequency of deaths from thromboembolism may be explained by the younger age and lower BMI of the patients in our cohort.

The surgeon's low experience, defined as less than 20 surgeries per year, was associated with an increase in mortality from causes related to surgery. The role of the surgeon's experience in the outcome of bariatric surgery has been previously addressed. (8,22,28-30). However, different cut-off points were used to define surgeon low experience, ranging from 15 to 50 procedures/year (29,30). Nevertheless, results were all consistent regarding the lower mortality rates of patients operated on by more experienced surgeons.

Male gender has been associated with lower survival rates after bariatric procedure in several studies (6,7,21), when analyzing all causes of death. This may be explained by factors not related to the bariatric surgery itself. Men generally have a higher overall risk of death than women, mostly due to violence and other gender-related factors, such as drinking, smoking, and other behaviors (31-33). Thus, the finding of no association between male gender and mortality related to surgery seems reasonable and in accordance with the findings from most long-term follow-up studies (3,8,9,22,26,34).

In the present cohort, 157 women became pregnant after bariatric surgery. Two of them died, one due to intestinal obstruction and the other to severe malnutrition. This result represents more than 50 times the maternal mortality rate compared to the general population (35). Because of the low numbers, it is not possible to test whether the risk of these complications is elevated following bariatric surgery. Mothers with prior bariatric surgery, regardless of obesity status, are more likely to have anemia, chronic hypertension, endocrine disorders, and small for gestational age infants (36). While there are many potential benefits of bariatric surgery for women considering future pregnancy, there might also be some risks, and support from a multidisciplinary team during pregnancy is evident (37). Based on 13 case reports, Maggard et al. (37) found 14 complications requiring surgical intervention such as small bowel obstructions due to internal hernia, mid-gut volvulus (1 from adhesions), perforated gastric ulcer, band complications (including erosion and bleeding), and staple line stricture. Eight of these bariatric procedures were performed laparoscopically and six were performed in an open fashion. There were three maternal deaths (21.4%) (38).

Higher-Than-Expected Suicide Rate Following Bariatric Surgery

Suicides comprised 10% of all deaths in our cohort, which suggests that the preoperation protocol may require improvement to capture tendencies for alcoholism and self-harm behavior. The association between obesity and fatal and nonfatal suicide is controversial (39), but it appears that bariatric surgery patients are at increased risk of suicide (40). Heneghan et al. (40) found an increased risk of suicide among obese individuals, which persisted after bariatric surgery intervention. Although our study does not show an association between bariatric surgery and suicidal behavior, given the lack of a control group, our results suggest that further research is warranted to find the optimal approach to evaluate candidates for surgery, including extensive psychological preprocedure evaluation and long-term follow-up.

A Tragic Risk of Weight-Loss Surgery - The New York Times

This nonconcurrent cohort has strengths and weaknesses. It is based on registry data that were not generated specifically for a research purpose. Nevertheless, the study took advantage of a well-structured database that included administrative data. Additionally, there were audits performed by the same surgeon for every candidate for bariatric surgery. Although the audit was not intended to be part of the research, data collected by the same surgeon provides data consistency. We assumed that all individuals were alive at the end of the study if they were not found in the Mortality System database.

Death Rates and Causes of Death After Bariatric Surgery ...

Compared to other studies, the patients in our cohort were younger and had a lower BMI. This may be due to the easy access to surgical procedures experienced by these patients once they are covered by a private healthcare organization where there are no coverage-limiting restrictions. The external validity of the present findings may be limited to individuals covered by health plans and with access to the same hospitals included in this study, but the associations found are likely to represent true risk factors for mortality from causes related to bariatric surgery. This study represents the first long-term assessment of the outcomes of bariatric surgery in a large Brazilian cohort. Thousands of morbidly obese patients undergo bariatric surgery as the final attempt to lose weight. In these patients, death, up to 10 years after the procedure, is a rare event, but can be reduced further by improving surgeon experience and reducing the BMI of superobese patients before surgery. We did not confirm that male gender is a risk factor for long-term deaths related to bariatric surgery. The high suicide rate after the procedure suggests the need for improving the patient's pre- and postoperative psychological evaluation and follow-up control.

Why do Bariatric surgery patients kill themselves at 58% ...

Why do Bariatric surgery patients kill themselves at 58% higher rate than regular obese folks?

"A Tragic Risk of Weight-Loss Surgery" The New York Times

In August, The New England Journal of Medicine reported a review of nearly 10,000 bariatric surgery patients by Utah researchers, who compared them to a control group of obese people who had applied for a state driver’s license. Although the surgery patients had a 50 percent lower risk of dying from disease compared to obese people who hadn’t undergone surgery, their risk of dying in an accident or suicide was 11.1 per 10,000 people — that’s 58 percent higher than the 6.4 per 10,000 rate in the obese group. The study suggested the suicide risk was twice as high for surgery patients than for those who had not had surgery....

ANSWER: Because they feel unable to follow the guidelines and feel as depressed as before, not much has changed except that their guts have gerrymandered Frankenstein style which brings up lots of restrictions and complications.

Pastor Chefferson Destroys Nasty Fat Girl Gluttons On Bariatic Pal

Fat girls are nasty inside and out and now Pastor Chefferson knows it. Unitarian minister Charles Chefferson went to Bariatric Pal to gather some insight on weight loss surgery and why people simply stop being gluttonous and slothful. That hit a nerve with the angry, jealous fat girls there.

Fat girls not only lack self-control, the lack basic decency. Selfishness and disrespect are key components of fattitude. Fat girls like male sausage but they hate men nearly as much as they hate slender women. Only a real loser of  man would stick his dick in they yeasty hole of a fat girl.

Ugly Hideous Fat Feminist Type Oozing Fattitude And Cunt Yeast 

As we all know, most fat girls who have WLS never keep the weight off because they never lose the fattitude.

I told the pastor to show those fat slobs no mercy but he went there all fillled with Christian charity only to get hit my a big yeasty flabblanche of paranoia, lies and lame insults. No he knows the truth about fat sluts. They are irredeemable and a waste of protoplasm.

The Weight Loss Industry and Google Shadow Banned This Blog

The numbers don't lie but doctors and Google do.

Google is a censoring son of a bitch and the weight loss surgery industry is butchering son of a bitch.

Filthy doctors complained and Google whores sucked their dicks.

Deadly Doctors and Their Deadly Industry

 If the surgery doesn't kill you their drugs will. Wake up fatties! There is nothing wrong with your stomach or your intestines. Your digestive system is just fine. You don't need to pay some greedy bastardly butcher to fuck up your stomach and your intestine. If you want to lose weight and keep it off simply admit that your are a greedy glutton and then stop being a greedy glutton from this day forward. If you are a moral person you will cease your gluttonous behavior now and you will encourage others to do the same. If you are a fat fucking idiot then walk into the medical meat grinder and bring the other lemmings along with you and live on protein shakes for the rest of your miserable worthless life.

 Your gluttony and the FOOD and DRUG Administration is why you are a big fat waddling eating machine. Grow up and cut your calories to 2500 or less if you are a man and 2000 if you are a woman.  There is no reason for why you can't do that and you know it PIG!