Bariatric Surgery - What Are The Risks Attached With It?

Bariatric surgery refers to a host of surgical procedures that help a person suffering from obesity to lose weight. Various methods are used to achieve the desired results, often times using the help of a gastric band to decrease the size of the stomach or surgically removing a small portion of the stomach. Notwithstanding the result, bariatric surgery like any other surgery involves certain risks. Some of them are-

1. Uncontrolled bleeding

One of the most common risks that any surgery entails is that of excessive or uncontrolled bleeding. If this condition persists, they often times lead to death.

2. Infection

Though infections seemingly appear easily preventable and easy to deal with, they often snowball into fatalistic danger to the point of no recovery.

3. Side-effects of anesthesia

Administering general anesthesia before performing any surgery is a common practice. However, sometimes it may yield certain unforeseen consequences.

4. Clotting of blood

Quite similar to excessive bleeding, even clotting of blood presents an equally if not more hazardous situation. Though sometimes timely intervention of medications resolves the situation, often it aggravates into a grievous cause of concern.

5. Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia refers to the condition when there is a deficiency or the lack of glucose in the blood. Though this is a side-effect of bariatric surgery, it does not appear immediately but rather surfaces many years after the operation was performed.

6. Emotional disorder

Along with physical ailments, post-bariatric surgery may also affect you emotionally. Post-bariatric surgery may sometimes lead to emotional and behavioural disorders in you and sudden, incomprehensible mood swings.

7. Death

Though rare, one cannot negate the possibility of death as a plausible risk of bariatric surgery.