the latest WLS complications discovered

[firecat]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=534&e=3&u=/ap/20050721/ap_on_he_me/fit_obesity_surgery_risk excerpts follow

A[t] least six patients who underwent the most popular type of obesity surgery have developed an apparent complication — blood sugar so perilously low that it causes confusion, tunnel vision and blackouts, doctors say.
[....]
To correct the condition, doctors had to remove most of the pancreas from the patients. But that put the patients in danger of developing diabetes, an illness that is often cured by gastric bypass surgery.

Dr. Neil Hutcher, a stomach-bypass surgeon who is president of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, said he has never seen the possible complication in his roughly 3,000 operations.

"Do I think it can be called a substantial complication of gastric bypass at this time? Absolutely not. Do I think it's a reason to modify gastric bypass at this time? Absolutely not," he said.

I'm assuming these complications occurred fairly soon after the operation and the pancreas tissue was removed during that period. I understand that the major appetite-suppressant effects of WLS wear off after a year or two, so I'm worried about what happens to these people walking around with less than half of their pancreas, after this period is over. I mean, I have diabetes too and it's not the end of the world, but it does tend to screw with my vitamin and mineral balance - and WLS also has that complication, only worse in some people, requiring injections.

Comments

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

This just frustrates me all to hell.

The continued experimentation on fat people and the notion that it is better to be thin than healthy just sickens me.

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

Incredibly creepy, sounds like some gruesome medical experiment dreamed up by Nazis.

[pachamama.livejournal.com]

Interesting article on WLS in the Observer today : here (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1539398,00.html).

[firecat]

That article is incredibly insulting.

[pachamama.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought so too -- but it was interesting to hear from the women who had chosen to do it.