The Blount Memorial Weight Management Center, Foothills Weight Loss Specialists and Johnson and Johnson Ethicon Endo-Surgery hosted a Bariatric Surgery Fashion Show. The event celebrated seven years and more than 75,000 pounds lost at Blount Memorial. Weight-loss surgery patients took a walk down the catwalk, showed off their clothes pre-surgery and post-surgery, and then told others about how bariatric surgery changed their lives for the better.

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Children’s National Medical Center in collaboration with researches from New York University have found laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (Lap band) to improve the health of morbidly obese adolescents. The participants showed significant decreases in total and android fat mass 2 years after surgery. Android fat has been linked to the development of obesity-related illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease, and insulin resistance.

Mercy Medical Center has become the first hospital on Long Island to offer a new single-incision Lap-Band(r) (laparoscopic gastric banding) procedure for weight loss surgery. SILS is an important new option that holds the potential of less pain, fewer scars and quicker recovery. Mercy received the 2008 Bariatric Surgery Excellence Award(tm) from HealthGrades(r), the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization, and is a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence designated the American Society For Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

A recent research conducted at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota has concluded that obese patients can consider bariatric surgery for reducing the risk of adverse cardiovascular events. This is the first ever study to take into account validated scores for cardiovascular risk on a patient population and compare them with previous results. The results showed that cardiovascular risk was reduced by up to 79 per cent.

Researchers are studying the case of a 27-year-old woman who developed a vitamin deficiency after failing to take multivitamins post- gastric bypass surgery. After two months of an uncomplicated surgery for weight loss at the University College Hospital, London she suffered from dizziness, vomiting and low-appetite. Also, prescribed lansoprazole (drug for prevention of acid production in stomach), the patient was found to be deficient in these medications. Only after physicians administered thiamine (Vitamin B1), the patient recovered.

GI Dynamics has announced that the new data on its novel non-invasive device to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes, EndoBarrier™, currently in the clinical trial phase, will be presented soon. The EndoBarrier Gastrointestinal Liner will be a new sign of hope for the 99% of patients qualified as clinically obese and do not want to go for bariatric surgery. The data will be put forward at the International Federation for Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) 13th World Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

According to American researchers, bariatric surgery patients with two obesity-related genetic variations are more likely to be obese compared to others. Published in the journal, Archives of Surgery, researchers analyzed patients’ blood samples for two common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are known to be connected with obesity. The research may offer new hope for patients who do not lose weight even after undergoing bariatric surgery.

According to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, obese adolescents who choose to undergo weight loss surgery showed significant improvement in their heart’s size and functioning after a period of time. The heart abnormality reversal was more likely to happen in teenagers than in adults.

NewHope Bariatrics has launched an outpatient weight-loss surgery venture with Dr. David Voellinger, a Charlotte physician who was the first to perform Lap-Band surgery in the Charlotte area.

Voellinger will perform Lap-Band outpatient procedures at the local offices of Surgical Care Affiliates. The procedure is performed laparoscopically, typically in less than one hour, and patients return home the same day. Unlike a gastric bypass procedure, use of the band is adjustable and reversible.

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