1 in 50

[firecat]

A recent study by researchers at the University of Washington found that 1 in 50 people die within one month of having gastric bypass surgery, and that figure jumps nearly fivefold if the surgeon is inexperienced.

From "Gastric Bypass Surgery Gone Bad" on http://www.cbsnews.com/

Comments

[firecat]

Yes. It would be hard to collect those stats because the immediate cause of death may not look like a complication of gastric bypass - one of the people mentioned in the article I quoted was said to have died of a heart attack, but since it was within a short time of surgery it was obvious that this was a surgery complication.

I also recall seeing from a respectable source (I don't remember which one) that the average lifespan of a mildly to moderately obese woman is longer than the average male lifespan. Most WLS is performed on relatively young (30s-40s) women who are in good health; the death rate in this age group is pretty low.