Bariatric Surgery

摘要

Weight reduction surgery has been performed for more than 50 years (MacGregor, 2002), but only recently has it gained considerable attention due to the rising epidemic of obesity in the United States. Increasing numbers of individuals are undergoing bariatric surgery in an effort to enhance their health, quality of life, and life expectancy. Celebrities have popularized the procedures. According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (Steinbrook, 2004), there were 103,000 bariatric surgeries in 2003 in the United States, up from nearly 16,000 in the early 1990s.