ABQ Tribune article-dtd 26 June 04
June 26, 2004
Gastric bypass surgeries on hold at UNM
By Sue Vorenberg
Tribune Reporter
University of New Mexico Hospital has temporarily stopped doing gastric bypass surgery - a drastic and sometimes controversial weight-loss procedure for the morbidly obese.
Donald Fry, surgery department chairman, has taken a sabbatical this summer to learn new gastric bypass surgery techniques, spokesman Sam Giammo said. Fry plans to return in the fall and resume doing the procedure.
"When Dr. Fry comes back, we'll have a new program and we'll start doing the procedure again," Giammo said. "This isn't a policy decision to stop."
Fry has performed most of the weight-loss surgeries done at UNM Hospital. A few other doctors did them sporadically and then stopped, Giammo said.
"They decided because of the risks of this technique they're just not going to do it anymore," he said. "It wasn't their specialty, and it's not emergency surgery."
The hospital's death rate for the procedure is close to the national average of 2 percent. Out of 400 patients, the death rate has been "in the high single digits," Giammo said.
A few families of patients that died are suing the hospital, but that had nothing to do with the decision to suspend the surgery while Fry is on sabbatical, Giammo added.
"It's a risky surgery, and a last resort, but when weighed against the problems of obesity, it can be the only option for some people," said Bob Ferraro, medical director for Southwest Endocrinology's weight management diabetes program.
Morbidly obese patients face shortened lifespans, greater risk of heart attack and diabetes, bone loss and many other problems, Ferraro said.
Complications from the surgery include vitamin deficiencies, hernias, hair loss, vomiting and, in some cases, death, he added.
As a teaching hospital, UNM sometimes takes high-risk patients who have been rejected by other hospitals, which is part of the reason some of the deaths have been controversial, Giammo said.
The hospital called several patients to advise them it has suspended the program. It will continue to work with patients that have already had the procedure, Giammo said.
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