Obesity is a disease highly associated with other pathologies, leading to an increased
mortality. Losing weight has proven to be an effective way of reducing comorbidities
and consequently mortality. Among the measures applied in this sense we find surgical
options like gastric band (GB). This treatment has been recently stopped in our hospital
due to financial constraints. Our aim is to determine the success rates of GB in reducing
weight and its superiority when compared to hygiene — dietetic measures in the population
of an obesity's consultation (OC) in a district hospital. We present a retrospective
study in which all patients who attended the OC since 2008 were included. Our results
demonstrated the expected superiority of GB in reducing weight and obesity's comorbidities
both in Grade II and Grade III of obesity. We can thereby conclude that GB is an effective
measure to reduce morbidity and mortality, reducing at the same time the treatment
costs of associated diseases. Therefore the investment made will, in a long term perspective,
reduce the expenses. On the other hand the low incidence of severe complications observed
clearly states the safety of the surgical treatment. In this context it is legitimate
to question whether this therapeutic approach will actually lead to a reduction of
costs, or whether it will lead to more future spending, not forgetting the wellbeing
of patients who could benefit from GB.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to European Journal of Internal MedicineAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
Article info
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc.