Complain about a product or service

What You Need To Know About Weight Loss Surgery

Five tips for those considering an operation

By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 24, 2009
America is a fat country.

Sixty-six percent of all U.S. adults are overweight or obese according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, faced with heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, many are shopping for bariatric surgery to help manage these conditions and, in some cases, cure them.

What should a consumer look for in a bariatric program? Stephen Hamn, M.D., medical director of the weight loss surgery program at Baylor Medical Center at Frisco, an American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence, offers these tips:

• Take your time choosing a program. Weight loss surgery is a not a magic bullet, but requires life style changes to be effective. A good-quality program will tell you up front about the different options for weight loss surgery and the post-operative work -- exercise and changes in diet -- required for each option. Weight loss surgery is not an emergency. Take time to consider at least two programs.

• Be flexible. Consult with a surgeon or surgeons who perform more than one type of weight loss surgery. As a consumer, you can select gastric bypass, adjustable gastric banding or the gastric sleeve procedure. "One procedure may be more effective for you than another for your individual needs, so do your research on all options," urges Dr. Hamn.

• Numbers do matter. Numerous studies have shown that complication rates from weight loss surgery are highly dependent on the surgeon's experience. Because experience is tantamount to success, ask your surgeon how many of each proposed operations he or she has performed.

• Chemistry matters. In many general surgical cases, you have limited interaction with your surgeon. Not so with weight loss surgery. You may see your surgeon at least four or five times in the first year. Be sure the surgeon and support staff are genuinely interested in you and your success.

• Support matters, too. To succeed, weight loss surgery requires hard work from you. What support can you expect post-surgery? Does the program offer support groups, psychological support, exercise or physical therapy? Are dietitians involved to help you develop better eating habits and food plans? "I frequently tell our patients that 90 percent of their long-term success is in their hands, not mine," says Dr. Hamn.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Follow us on Twitter.