Morbid obesity or clinically severe obesity is a very serious medical condition for which surgery may be advisable.

If you are  more than 100 pounds overweight and you are unable to lose weight despite your maximal attempts,  then you should know that surgery may be able to help.

Obesity means that there is an excess of body fat. Extreme obesity is called  Morbid Obesity. Usually these patients are more than 100 pounds above their ideal weight as determined by life insurance charts.  Go to the weight table to see what  your  ideal weight is. Surgery  may be indicated for those morbidly obese patients who are unable to lose and maintain a significant weight loss. Surgery is usually not indicated for "simple obesity".

Morbid obesity is associated with many medical and non medical problems. It  is a very significant health risk factor which can be dramatically improved with weight loss.  Unfortunately a lasting success is rare utilizing standard non surgical methods such as diet and exercise.  Even very low calorie programs which are medically supervised have a poor long term weight loss result (years).  Diet medications have been found to have serious side effects.

Surgery has been shown to be an effective long term treatment for morbidly obese patients who cannot lose weight by other means  (National Institute of Health (NIH): Gastrointestinal Surgery for Severe Obesity Consensus Statement).

My patients describe dieting for many many years  and they usually end up  gaining   more than they lose despite their maximal attempts.  They have been told by their own physicians that they have to lose weight but they are unable to despite all their efforts, diets, medications, programs, exercise, hypnosis, etc., etc.  These are the patients that I have been able to help utilizing a surgical procedure. 

This is not experimental or cosmetic surgery and is usually covered by most health insurance policies in the same way that any other surgical procedure  necessary for your health would be. The type of surgery done on morbidly obese patients in order to achieve weight loss is called Bariatric Surgery. This is also sometimes known as stomach stapling although that is a very non specific term.

For more information click on the links where you will learn more about morbid obesity and how it a real health problem, about the surgery for morbid obesity, about our office, and about all the support that we offer our patients at Syosset Hospital.

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