Review Article: Metabolic surgery: a concise overview and understanding of potential complications

Rationale for the surgical treatment of morbid obesity Morbid obesity correlates with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 kg/m2.1 Being overweight is associated with numerous significant physical problems that are now well recognised. It is clear that overweight people of both sexes, especially young overweight people, tend to die sooner than their lean contemporaries.1,-3 While obesity is a risk factor, additional mortality and morbidity is associated with co-morbid conditions.4 This applies to non-operated, as well as perioperative, mortality and morbidity. These conditions were described at the 1985 National Institutes of Health Consensus conference, and include diseases such as hypertension, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, hyperlipidaemia with ischaemic heart disease (IHD)