Is Gastric Bypass Surgery Safe?

Surgery to restrict the capacity of the stomach reduces the number of calories a person consumes daily, leading to weight loss. To qualify for the procedure, a person must be 100 pounds above his ideal body weight and have coexisting conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol or other risk factors for early death. Each individual must weigh the risks of the surgery against the risk of death from co-morbid health conditions.

Surgical Risks

As with any surgical procedure, there are risks from the anesthesia and risks such as bleeding to death or having a stroke or heart attack during surgery. These risks are higher in the obese population. Having gastric bypass surgery, however, may prevent the need for other surgical procedures to correct health problems that are caused by obesity, such as coronary artery disease. An article in "Surgical Endoscopy" in 2005 reported that death rates from gastric bypass surgery were 0.4 percent between 1990 and 2000.

Post-Surgical Complications

After gastric bypass surgery, the small stomach pouch that remains can break open at the suture site, requiring another surgical procedure for repair. Another complication is narrowing of the opening from the stomach to the small intestine to the point that food cannot pass out of the stomach. Surgical intervention may be required to resolve this issue as well. In the Surgical Endoscopy review of bariatric surgery outcomes between 1990 and 2000, 1.3 percent of patients required another operation to repair a problem.

Nutrition Complications

Because part of the digestive tract is bypassed in this procedure, malabsorption of certain vitamins and minerals may occur, leading to a deficiency. Medline specifies calcium, iron, and vitamin B12 as the more common nutrient deficiencies. Inadequate calcium absorption can lead to osteoporosis, and poor absorption of iron or vitamin B12 can lead to different types of anemia. Following careful instructions regarding dietary intake, and taking nutritional supplements as prescribed can reduce the chance of deficiencies in the years after the surgery.

Comparative Safety

In a paper from the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in 2005, mortality of surgical bypass patients was compared to death rates of patients undergoing the less-invasive restrictive procedures like gastric banding or stomach stapling. In the first 30 days after surgery, bypass patients suffered twice the rate of death as the other group. However, the numbers were small, with the bypass patients at 0.27 percent deaths compared to 0.14 percent in the other group. When the groups were followed over about 8 years, both groups were found to have an equal survival rate.

Health Benefits

Weight loss after gastric bypass surgery reduces co-morbid conditions---such as hypertension or high cholesterol---significantly enough to reduce the rate of death. An article in the August 2007 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine compared the rates of death and disease between gastric bypass patients and a control group of obese patients. The results found the death rate of the bypass group to be 40 percent lower than the control group. The patients who remained obese experienced more deaths from coronary artery disease, complications of diabetes and cancer.