Editorial Review Bariatric surgery and renal function: a precarious balance between benefit and harm

Medical treatment of obesity and lifestyle modification have limited effectiveness in treating it in morbidly obese indivi-duals. Importantly, bariatric surgery is regarded as the only therapy that is effective inmaintaining significant weight loss in morbidly obese individuals. Despite the fact that bariatric surgery-induced weight loss is associated with a significant decrease in morbidity and mortality and improvement in renal function, bariatric surgery has recently been shown to be associated with a significant risk of nephrolithiasis. The main risk factor for nephrolithiasis is increased excretion of urinary oxalate. In this review, we discuss the association be-tween bariatric surgery, an increased risk of renal stone for-mation and oxalate nephropathy