The progress in bariatric surgery

Morbid obesity, caused by fat tissue accumulation, is a serious multi-factorial chronic disease, with rapidly increasing prevalence in most countries in the world including Poland. Conservative treatment of morbid obesity is almost always unsatisfactory and that is why several surgical methods have been developed. There are four kinds of methods: malabsorptive procedures; restrictive procedures; malabsorptive/restrictive procedures and experimental procedures. The development of bariatric surgery goes back to 1952 and since that time it has been evolving dynamically. All the surgical methods have benefits and disadvantages. Presently the introduction of minimally invasive surgical techniques seems to be very safe, efficient and cost-effective in treatment for morbid obesity. New methods are also being evaluated, such as gastric myo-electrical stimulation. Bariatric surgery will still be developing until we understand all the factors responsible for it is origin.