Free camp @ Gem Hospital
Coimbatore-based Gem Hospital will conduct a free camp on July 8 to identify patients suffering from morbid obesity. Free bariatric surgery will be performed on those from the economically backward section on July 21 and 22. These ‘live surgeries’ on both the days will be part of ‘Laprofit 2007”, an international conference on the surgery to treat morbid obesity, hospital director C. Palanivelu told presspersons on Thursday.Bariatric surgeons Rudolph Weiner of Germany and Raul J. Rosenthal of the U.S. would demonstrate laparoscopic weight reduction operations during the conference. Surgeries costing more than Rs.1 lakh would be performed free of cost on poor patients, Dr. Palanivelu said. Not all overweight people needed surgery. Only those who had alarming body mass index and came under the category of morbid obesity required this surgery. And, this procedure should not be confused with the liposuction technique where fat in the body was sucked out.Bariatric surgery cut on food itself. Gastric bypass (stapling) and gastric banding were the two procedures under bariatric surgery. The bypass procedure involved the creation of a small stomach pouch with the help of staplers. The pouch restricted food intake. The banding involved putting a silicon band around the upper part of the stomach to reduce its capacity for food.“Those who had been eating 10 idlis before the surgery would feel that their stomach is full after eating only two after the procedure,” he said.To reports on people regaining weight even after the surgery, the doctor said that the banding technique did not provide a permanent solution.People regained weight after sometime. But, the stapling method ensured that the weight loss was permanent.
People suffering from morbid obesity should not conclude that it was just a case of being overweight or that it was a body condition.This problem could lead to diabetes, heart attack and even cancer of the digestive tract. A 34-year-old man weighing more than 160 kg was found to have cancer, when he approached the hospital for bariatric surgery.Dr. Palanivelu said that those who wanted to be screened at the camp (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the hospital) could contact the hospital on phone numbers: 0422-2324105 and 98943-33999.
