Surge in demand for weight-loss surgeries at AIIMS – ET HealthWorld

“This is almost 1.5 times the number we were seeing before the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Dr Sandeep Aggarwal, in-charge of bariatric or weight-loss surgery at AIIMS, adding that almost all patients asking for the surgery needed it.

Aggarwal said, “All of them had Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 35 with obesity-associated diseases like diabetes mellitus, sleep apnea and fatty liver. These patients are worked up comprehensively and prepared for surgery.”

Weight-loss surgery is suggested when other measures to reduce weight, like exercise, diet management and treatment of underlying illness that may be causing excessive weight gain, fail to yield the desired result, say experts.

“Earlier, many patients would come for weight-loss surgery, but they always wanted to take time to decide on getting it done. Now, people come all prepared for it. They are scared that being overweight could put them at extra risk of developing complications if they get infected with Covid-19,” said Aggarwal.

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US says obesity triples the risk of hospitalisation due to Covid-19. “Obesity is linked to impaired immune function. It also decreases lung capacity and reserve and can make ventilation more difficult,” it adds.

A study published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Journal, which is based on more than 6.9 million people living in England and includes data from over 20,000 Covid-19 patients who were hospitalised or died during the first wave, found that the risk of worse outcomes from the disease start rising in people with a BMI of above 23kg/m2, which is considered to be in the healthy range.

“Risks of hospitalisation were 5% higher for each one-unit increase in BMI and the risk of ICU admission was 10% higher. People who were underweight (BMI less than 18.5) also experienced worse outcomes from Covid-19,” the authors noted.