Stomach Stapling: Surgical Treatment For Obesity Essay -- Research Med

Stomach Stapling: Surgical Treatment For Obesity In today's society there is an increasing number of obese people despite the growing concerns about leading a healthy lifestyle. There are numerous programs, diets, medications, etc. that have been developed to aid weight loss efforts and weight maintenance. One field that is being rapidly explored is methods of surgical treatment for obesity. This paper will explore these surgical methods. In doing so it is important to also discuss the definition and measurement of obesity, programs that have been established and claim to aid weight loss efforts, candidates for this type of treatment, medical research that has been conducted and the risks involved in this type of treatment for obesity. The purpose of this paper is to correctly inform the reader about the claims of surgical treatment and the risks that are actually involved. Obesity: Definition and Measurement The term obesity is quite difficult to define for the mere fact that humans are highly individualistic and vary in weight and height. Therefore, a standardized definition of obesity is not inclusive. One definition of obesity is "a clinical term for excess body weight generally applied to persons who are 20% or more above a desired weight for height" (Williams, 1992, p.221). Another way to define obesity is simply as an "excess accumulation of body fat" (Perri, Nezu and Viegener, 1992, p.23); however, this definition seems to be simplistic because it does not explicitly determine what the percentage overweight should be in order to define a person as obese. Because there is no standard body weight, overweight is often measured by body mass index (BMI). Body mass index is calculated as follows: BMI=weight(in k... ...H Consensus Statement 1991, March 25-27; 9(1):1-20. Mason, E.E., Doherty, C., Maher, J.W., Scott, D.H., Rodriguez, E.M. and Blommers, T.J. (1987). Super obesity and gastric reduction procedures. Gastroenterology Clinics of North America, 16, 495-502. Perri, Michael G., Nezu, A.M., and Viegener, B.J. (1992). Improving the Long Term Management of Obesity. New York: Wiley. Wadden, T.A. and VanItallie, T.B. (1992). Treatment of the Seriously Obese Patient. New York: Guilford Press. Williams, Sue R. (1992). Basic Nutrition and Diet Therapy. St. Louis: Mosby-Year Book, Inc. http://www.commpro.com/thin/obesity.html http://www.commpro.com/thin/surgery.html http://www.ivanhoe.com/docs/backissues/lapband.html http://www-surgery.med.ohio-state.edu/divisions/genr/obesity.htm http://text.nlm.nih...ww/84txt.