Surgeons once recommended weight-loss surgery only for severely obese patients who failed to drop pounds with conventional weight-loss methods, but a review now finds that bariatric surgery helps the moderately obese lose more weight, too.

“Until recently, only people with severe obesity with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 40 were considered for bariatric surgery,” said review author Jill Colquitt, Ph.D.

But studies, such as those included in this review, now examine the effects of surgery on people with a BMI of 30 to 40 who have diseases such as type 2 diabetes or hypertension that potentially could improve, said Colquitt, a senior research fellow at the University of Southampton, in England.

“We see a wide range of patients who consider surgery. The majority are people that attempted medical weight loss for years and decades without success, and they have an intimate understanding of what morbid obesity means to them in their life. They’re looking for a therapy that can give them some help,” said Peter Hallowell, M.D., an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Virginia. He has no affiliation with the review.

In the new review the third update of a 2002 review researchers led by Colquitt examined 26 previously published studies on bariatric surgery involving 5,766 patients. Five of the included trials took place in the United States. Read the rest of this entry »