Gastric Bypass Alleviates More Than Just Weight
Reported June 18, 2007
ORLANDO (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Bariatric surgery, commonly known as gastric bypass, not only shrinks a patient’s waistline, it may also alleviate incontinence problems for most patients.
Researchers from the University of South Florida in Tampa report 82 percent of morbidly obese patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery reported improved or complete resolution of urinary incontinence following surgery. More than 13 million Americans suffer from urinary incontinence, particularly overweight or obese women. According to the study, obesity is a major risk factor for incontinence — each 5-unit increase in body mass index (BMI) is associated with a 60-percent to 100-percent increased risk of daily incontinence.
Michel M. Murr, M.D., director of bariatric surgery at Tampa General Hospital and lead author of the study, said about 135,000 Americans had an operation to correct urinary incontinence last year. Dr. Murr says their study reveals bariatric surgery is just as effective as traditional urinary stress incontinence surgery but has the added health benefits of weight loss.
“The surgically-induced weight loss would improve their symptoms of urinary incontinence [by alleviating stress on the pelvic muscles and bladder],” Dr. Murr told Ivanhoe. “Now, when we talk to the primary care doctors or urologists, we are going to say it is as effective as any intervention you do, but it has the advantages of eliminating the other life threatening symptoms of obesity.” Doctors say obesity is associated with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, hypertension, asthma, cancer joint problems and infertility.
“This surgery is safe. We proved that a long time ago,” Dr. Murr told Ivanhoe. “We are now learning how effective the impact of obesity surgery is for the quality of life of our patients. It’s just a wonderful thing to have for patients who have been overweight a long time and have had a lot of problems with obesity.”
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Michel M. Murr, M.D., presented at the American Society for Bariatric Surgery in San Diego, June 11-16, 2007