Word: gastric
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...question that celebrity success stories have helped popularize gastric-bypass surgery, known as stomach stapling. The number of these procedures in the U.S. soared from 63,000 in 2002 to perhaps 100,000 this year. But there are real dangers associated with the operation--ranging from suture tears and leaks to pulmonary embolisms, pneumonia and infection--and these risks seem to be highest among those who need it most, the extremely obese (more than 100 lbs. overweight). That's the conclusion of a study of 335 patients, two of whom died. "This should not be considered a cosmetic procedure," warns...
Townsend is testing one of the most controversial weapons in the war against childhood obesity. Although the number is still small--doctors estimate that perhaps 150 U.S. teens have undergone so-called gastric-bypass surgery--it could jump dramatically. The percentage of children who are overweight and obese has tripled, from about 5% in 1980 to 15% in 2000, and a dozen hospitals around the U.S. either have started doing gastric bypasses on kids or are planning to. Dr. Thomas Inge of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, where Ashlee had the surgery, estimates that as many as 250,000 American...
That has a lot of physicians concerned. It's one thing for celebrities like TV weatherman Al Roker or singer Carnie Wilson to undergo gastric bypass. We are used to adults, even those who aren't famous, weighing the risks and benefits of such extreme treatments. But high school students? Can kids who have trouble planning for next week, let alone the rest of their lives, really understand what they are getting into...
...Gastric bypass works by radically altering the size and shape of the stomach and shortening the length of the small intestine so that the body can no longer take in normal amounts of food. First, surgeons "staple" the stomach with surgical tools so that it can't hold more than about an ounce of food. Eat more than five or six bites, and you will feel a sense of nausea. Then the doctors rearrange the small intestine, the organ that actually absorbs nutrients, so that about a third of it can no longer function normally. Patients must take supplements...
...Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Chemistry and Society, explains why. The difference, he says, "is that ingested chromium-6 encounters hydrochloric acid in the stomach's gastric juices, and is converted to chromium-3, which is innocuous." Anyway, he points out, "no single toxin causes the wide array of conditions that afflict Hinkley residents...