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Obese, but worried that surgery for it might kill you? The risk of that has dropped dramatically, and now is no greater than for having a gall bladder out, a hip replaced or most other major operations, new research shows.

The study looked at safety results for gastric bands and stomach stapling at 10 U.S. hospitals specializing in these procedures from 2005 through 2007. For every 1,000 patients, three died during or within a month of their surgery, and 43 had a major complication.


That is much better than the 20 or so deaths per 1,000 patients that studies found just a few years earlier. And it's surely lower than the longer term risk of dying of heart disease, diabetes and other consequences of lugging around more pounds than an obese person's organs can handle, experts say.






Many studies have compared those odds, and "all show a higher risk of dying if you do not have surgical treatment than if you do," said Dr. Eric DeMaria, weight loss surgery chief at Duke University Medical Center.





He had no role in the new study, which was led by Dr. David Flum at the University of Washington in Seattle. Results appear in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.


Dilkhush Patel, 17, a student of Indian origin who now lives in Kenya and weighs 248.3 kilograms (547.4 pounds) is seen after he underwent gastric bypass surgery at a hospital in Ahmadabad, India, Tuesday, July 28, 2009. Patel, a ‘super super obese' patient with a body mass index (BMI) of 97, about five times a normal person has undergone the surgery targeting to lose 150 kilograms ( 330.69 pounds) in the next one-and-a-half year. Dr. Mahendra Narwaria, who performed the surgery said, Patel was the first patient with such heavy weight to be operated for gastric bypass in the country - AP Photo.








Dilkhush Patel, 17, a student of Indian origin who now lives in Kenya and weighs 248.3 kilograms (547.4 pounds) and Dr. Mahendra Narwaria, share a light moment after Patel underwent gastric bypass surgery by Narwaria at a hospital in Ahmadabad, India, Tuesday, July 28, 2009.

 

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