ABSTRACT
References 326
1. INTRODUCTION
Adult bariatric surgical procedures on morbidly obese patients are on the verge of becom-
ing the most commonly performed operations by general surgeons. An estimated 90,000
adults in the United States will undergo bariatric operations in 2003, which is twice as
many those performed in 2002 and almost three times the number done in 2000 (1).
Part of this increase in the volume of bariatric procedures is supply related in that
obesity has become an epidemic affecting over 300 million adults across the world (2).
Furthermore, bariatric surgery is currently the only successful long-term treatment for
the severely obese patient. It has been well established that improved outcomes and favor-
able results in patients undergoing these procedures are documented by the resolution of
multiple medical comorbidities of obesity following surgically induced weight loss. The
introduction of minimally invasive surgical techniques to obesity surgery with reduction
of wound complications and operative morbidity has been a major contributor to the
logarithmic growth of bariatric surgery in the treatment of morbid obesity.
