Bariatric surgery is a boon to good health in the severely overweight.

A study published in the October 13, 2004 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that among patients who had chronic health conditions prior to their operations:

High blood pressure was eliminated in 62 percent of patients.
Cholesterol levels fell in 70 percent of patients.
Diabetes was reversed in 77 percent of patients who were diabetic.

Moreover, many gastric bypass patients lose 20% of their excess weight in just one month. After two years, most still have some excess weight, but the average loss of excess body fat is an amazing 80%.

That isn't to say bariatric surgery complications never happen. Bariatric surgery complications include (but are not limited to):

Accidental tears of the liver, spleen, or blood vessels. These complications are most common in patients who have had previous surgery.
Breathing problems, usually prevented by getting the patient up and moving as soon after surgery as possible.
Complications due to excessive anesthesia.
Deep vein thrombosis.
Hernia, the most common complication requiring a second operation to repair.
Infections or leaks along the suture lines.
Temporary hair loss.

These results, however, are no more common as bariatric surgery complications than they are as complications of any other kind of gastric surgery. In a study of the first 1,274 patients who had mini-gastric bypass, for example, there was only one death. Serious complications of any kind occur in less than 10% of all bariatric procedures.

Bariatric surgery complications are rare. Moreover, you can help prevent them.

How can you prevent bariatric surgery complications?

It's really very simple. Continue dieting right up until you have your operation.

The October 2005 edition of the medical journal Obesity Surgery reported a study finding that if bariatric surgery patients manage to lose just 5 percent of their excess weight prior to surgery, the surgical procedure takes an average of 36 minutes less.

That's 36 minutes less anesthesia the brain has to recover from. That's 36 fewer minutes for surgical error, and 36 fewer minutes that infection might leak from the stomach to surrounding organs.

The only possible complication caused by losing weight before surgery is an average 1.8 percent excess weight loss over the first year. In other words, people who diet before surgery lose weight a little more quickly than surgeons think is optimal.

Bariatric surgery complications are rare, but the risk is real. To minimize your chances of bariatric surgery complications, continue your efforts to lose weight right up to the moment of your surgery, and be completely open and honest with you physician about everything you do to lose weight.