Indications for surgery for morbid obesity and effectiveness of bariatric surgery

In this paper we describe a history and technical aspects of bariatric surgery. And surgical techniques of Divided Vertical Banded Gastroplasty and perioperative management are presented. Our indications for surgery for morbid obesity are almost equal to the guidelines for obesity surgery adopted by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery October 1986. From 1982 to 2000, 64 bariatric surgical procedures were performed at the author's institution. Vertical banded gastroplasty was performed in 45 patients, Horizontal gastric partitioning in 8 patients, Gastric bypass in 10 patients, and Divided vertical banded gastroplasty in 1 patient. The average weight loss one year after Vertical banded gastroplasty is 1/3 of the patient weight. Most of the preexisting comorbid conditions related to the obesity showed improvement or were completely resolved after surgery. No major complications were observed postoperatively. We concluded that surgical procedures for morbid obesity are very effective therapy.