| [ Summary ] |
Obesity is a serious health problem that has increased dramatically worldwide. Medical treatment of obesity and its associated comorbidities (e.g, type 2 diabetes mellitus) has been shown to be effective; however, variable responses to treatment, suboptimal compliance, and adverse effects limit the success of medical management strategies, especially in severely obese patients. The surgical treatment of obesity (so‒called bariatric surgery) has shown to result in dramatic weight loss, as well as an improvement of comorbidities in many severely obese patients, and thus, has been widely accepted in western countries. In Japan, the number of bariatric surgery operations is still low; however, it is expected to increase because laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy has now been accepted and is one of the procedures covered by Japanese national health insurance since 2014. In this article, the history of bariatric surgery, clinical outcomes, adverse events, current status and future perspectives are briefly summarized. |