Advances in weight loss surgery and body contouring after weight loss

Surgical treatment for morbid obesity has been increasing over the last few years. Historically, bariatric surgery had been plagued by complications, both technical and metabolic. The criteria to decide if a patient should have bariatric surgery required that the patient’s morbid obesity was contributing to an otherwise imminent demise. Now, with improved techniques, laparoscopic surgery and better understanding of the metabolic consequences of bariatric surgeries, it is presumed that the benefits outweigh the risks of bariatric surgery in increasing numbers of patients. Additionally, the post-bariatric procedures for body contouring have many documented complications. Most of these can be related to the nutritional status of obese patients and the relative immunodeficiency that obese patients possess. After a thorough literature search it appears that bariatric surgery and post-bariatric body contouring are, indeed, safer than previously thought.