[LisaS]

I had a chance to talk with a dept chair (anesthesiology) for Mayo med school a few years ago and we talked a little about the Mayo experience with bariatric surgery there in Rochester. The improvements can be so dramatic so fast that it is hard to argue against them if you have a patient with co-mobidities. He talked about running into patients at the hardware store just a few weeks (or months) later and hardly recognizing them (it is a small town after all). Their lab work resolves, their dependence on meds drops, all good outcomes.

That's not to say that there are serious possibilities for complications at the time of the surgery - for example - if your patient is barely mobile pre-op - you cannot get them up and walking immediately post-op to prevent clots - because that's more than they could handle pre-op.

So, yeah, I get it from their view - but I really don't care for it conceptually it from my view. But I assume with someone who is very sick (but not too sick yet) it might be the only chance to get them to live long enough to resolve all their other issues. By that I mean the people might not have the 2-3-4 years it would take conventionally. (in other words, not you)