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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The advisory, which was issued June 15, also recommends that people who are severely obese work toward making lifestyle changes that will improve their health before having any sort of surgery.
"Since recovery can be a problem for these patients, we recommend that they take steps to be as healthy as possible before going into surgery," Poirier said. "For example, the person with diabetes should get his or her blood sugar under control."
The advisory includes a proposed scoring tool to determine the risk of undergoing weight-loss surgery and calls for other risk-assessment tools for other surgeries.
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Despite the challenges, people who are severely obese are not at higher risk of death during surgery, a misconception among some health-care professionals, according to the advisory.
"Some surgeons are under the impression that severely obese patients are more likely to die in surgery than people who are not obese, and won't operate on them as a result," Poirier said. "This is not true. Severely obese patients are at increased risk for pulmonary embolism, wound infection and other conditions. But they are not more likely than their lower-weight counterparts to die as a result of surgery."
More information
The American Heart Association has more on obesity.
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-- Jennifer Thomas
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