Health Watch is a Public Service of the Office of News and Publications and is intended to provide general information only and should not replace the advice of a medical professional. You should contact your physician if you have questions about any of these topics.
This week on Health Watch, we’re talking about surgery to help people lose weight. Bariatric surgery, in which the size of the stomach is reduced, has become a common and popular method for helping severely obese patients lose large amounts of weight. But doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center caution that the surgery alone isn’t a cure-all for obesity.
Dr. Jeffrey Kenkel, vice chairman of plastic surgery at UT Southwestern, says multiple follow-up surgeries are usually needed after the massive weight loss to deal with the loose skin left behind. These are major, invasive surgeries. The bariatric surgery and weight loss are the first step, and then doctors can work to make patients look as good as they feel after the weight loss.
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November 2007
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