Obesity is a significant epidemic, with far reaching health implications. It is estimated that >30% of the adult US population are obese and the prevalence rates will continue to increase rapidly.1 Obesity is associated with heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, and type II diabetes. Salient to urologists is the association of renal lithiasis and obesity. Bariatric surgery as a means of surgical treatment of obesity has become increasingly popular, with an estimated 177 600 surgeries performed in the United States in 2006.2 Asplin and Coe demonstrated that the most common bariatric surgery, the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), results in significant hyperoxaluria and supersaturation of calcium oxalate as early as 3 months postprocedure. Matlaga et al4 recently reported that RYGB surgery results in a higher incidence of renal lithiasis as compared with a cohort of control subjects, with BMIs >35 and matched on the basis of age, gender, and comorbid conditions. Are obese patients contemplating weight control surgery "caught between a rock and a hard place"? This study appears to offer some promise. The authors demonstrate that gastric banding (GB), a surgical alternate to the RYGB, is not associated with an increased risk of renal lithiasis or kidney stone surgery.
展开▼
