Obesity costs Americans over $100 billion a year in direct health care costs and triggers early onset and worsening of conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and osteoarthritis. These conditions are costly to manage, requiring frequent doctor visits and even surgery to correct. The $100 billion figure does not take into account the time lost at work or the number of individuals who become completely disabled by obesity and related diseases.
The medical community is currently engaged in a fierce battle to treat and prevent this disease from becoming an epidemic; thus far our best efforts have fallen short with the number of obese individuals showing steady increases over the last 20 years. Currently over 60 percent of adults are overweight and even more disturbing are the 15 percent to 20 percent of children and adolescents that fall into this category.
Many options are available for treatment of obesity, but none offer results that approach the success of bariatric surgery. Surgery for obesity has been an option since the 1980s; however, only recently have we seen significant increases in the number of individuals undergoing these procedures. This is due to improvements in the procedures and techniques as well as the development of new procedures.
Several recent developments have led to increased awareness, demand, and acceptance of weight loss surgery procedures.
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