Qualifying for Bariatric Surgery

The National Institutes of Health set minimum requirements for recommending bariatric surgery as a treatment option:

Patients must be prepared to participate in a preoperative as well as a postoperative program and be committed to making the lifestyle and behavioral changes that will be necessary to achieve long-term weight loss. Each healthcare professional will help you prepare for the changes and challenges that lie ahead.

In general, if the patient is 100 pounds or more in excess of ideal weight, he or she may be a candidate. If the patient also has significant obesity-related medical problems, he or she may be a candidate. Patients who choose to have a gastric bypass should have a history of being unable to reach and maintain a healthy weight through more conventional means, such as a physician-prescribed diet program, counseling by a dietitian, or a group weight-loss program. Unsupervised attempts and failures to lose weight on one's own are not sufficient justification for surgery. A medically-supervised weight-reduction program is recommended before one considers surgical treatment for obesity.

Even if a person meets the above criteria, he or she must undergo a thorough medical, nutritional, and psychological evaluation to determine eligibility for gastric bypass surgery. These evaluations are done to protect the patient's interests, as well as to give the health care team the proper information necessary to make a recommendation.