Surgical treatment of the cardiometabolic syndrome and obesity.

Prevalence of overweight and obesity has reached a pandemic proportion worldwide and is increasingly contributing to premature morbidity and mortality. Lifestyle changes including behavioral modification, exercise, different dietary plans, and medications have very poor outcome on long-term weight loss. Bariatric surgery has shown to be very effective for morbidly obese patients. Surgery in these patients not only decreases their body weight but also may improve comorbid conditions associated with obesity. These patients on average lose 61% of excess body weight depending on the procedure performed. Diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension are normalized in these patients by 77%, 70%, and 62%, respectively. Patients need to be selected carefully for surgical treatment of obesity and have to be monitored closely over the long term for nutritional deficiencies and other complications.