Surgeries to treat obesity performed too early or without sufficient post-operative follow-up can lead to serious complications on the mental and physical health of patients.
Twenty times more. This is the rate of increase in surgical interventions aimed at treating obesity carried out in France over the past 20 years. Gastric band, sleeve, intestinal bypass… All these operations guarantee rapid weight loss and reduce obesity-related deaths. Bariatric surgery also has a significant effect on the psychological well-being of patients.
However, this type of intervention is cumbersome and requires following strict recommendations. The High Authority for Health (HAS) recommends, for example, prescribing bariatric surgery to patients who present a risk of comorbidity likely to be improved after surgery and recommends it as a second intention “after failure of medical, nutritional or dietary treatment. and well-conducted psychotherapeutic treatment for 6-12 months”.
However, the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) warned in 2018 of the non-compliance with these recommendations: “In 2016, health insurance refused to cover 29% of these operations in around thirty establishments who practiced them on a large scale, because they did not comply with the recommendations of the High Health Authority”, specifies the report.
Support “better supervised and secure”
A recent survey carried out by the investigation unit of Radio France also confirms that many interventions are carried out in establishments, without respecting the six-month period which implies in particular a psychological follow-up of patients before the operation.
“I regularly have people who call me from all over France to tell me that they have complications and that we had not warned them, they feel abandoned”, explains to France Info Yolande Pontonnier, president of the association “Towards a new look”, which takes care of obese patients.
The risks of complications from an operation carried out outside the recommendations of the HAS are serious, in particular the repercussions of a psychological order: weight regain, difficulties in getting used to one’s new physical appearance, risk of addiction to psychoactive substances. -active to compensate for the lack of food.… According to a study published in 2015 in the journal JAMA Surgery, obese operated patients are 50% more likely to attempt suicide than before the operation.
On October 8, Health Minister Agnès Buzyn unveiled the 2019-2022 obesity management roadmap which aims, among other things, to better prevent bariatric surgery by ensuring “better supervised and secure”. “Complications can occur for nearly one in four patients for certain types of operations: digestive complications, risks related to the loss of masmuscular but also comorbidities such as nutritional deficiencies or psychological difficulties”, underlined the ministry of health in a press release.
The government has notably announced measures aimed at reassessing the authorizations of establishments to carry out this type of intervention: “As of next year, hospitals will be subject to ‘authorization’ in order to be able to carry out bariatric surgery, on the basis of of activity thresholds and commitment to respect criteria for quality care”, could we read in the press release.
