Ouch! Gastric Bypass May Increase Risk of Kidney Stones

All the sheiks are doing it?

Unfortunately, there are people who will read this and still consider having the surgery. How sad. People get desperate and just really want to quickly make all the weight go away, along with the associated health problems. Many of them truly believe that surgery is the only way, so they ignore all the possible complications.

It was always my understanding that people who get gastric bypass surgery usually do so because if they don't they'll die. I hear doctors only recommend this procedure to patients who are morbidly obese. Of course we should all diet and lose weight naturally and not go through surgery. But I believe that if that overweight person is in real danger of dying from obesity, they should definitely go for the surgery. I don't think it's a "quick fix" as afterwords the patient has to learn to maintain their new weight. For alot of people, it is "the last resort" and I think they should go for it if they can save their lives.

I had gastric bypass surgery 19 months ago and have not had kidney stones. In fact, I've had NO complications whatsoever. However, my hypertension is gone, no more lower back pain, no more high cholesterol or diabetes or heart disease risk. I am healthier now than I've ever been in my life. I've finished a half marthon and am working on completing another. This has been - by far - the hardest thing I've ever done. There's nothing "quick fix" or "easy way out" about it. It's the best thing I could have ever done for myself.

This seems to be one of the topics where the saying, "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts," rules.

The reality is this operation, as any operation, can be helpful, must be applied in the correct situations, and requires a serious commitment from the patient to really be successful.

I am in another area of surgery. I don't know that many people who have had this operation, but the ones I do have done well, and would do it again.

While for a lot of people it IS a last resort, there are a lot of people that do want to get it done because they think it will be a quick fix to help them lose weight quickly and effortlessly. The truth is, it's a serious operation and should be reserved for people that really and truly need something to force them to eat healthy and get moving. My husband's aunt passed away from complications due to gastric bypass surgery. At 400+ lbs, she was one of those people that truly needed it, but unfortunately she developed a pulmonary embolism after the operation and died. Other people that I know that have had it say that it's a big help in their weight loss, but that it's still ultimately up to them as far as how they manage their bodies. I don't know anyone that's developed kidney stones after having gastric bypass surgery, but it's just one more risk that you have to put on the list to see if the surgery is right for you.

I did this almost 20 years ago back when it was stomach stapling and they didn't have laproscopic procedures. 10 months after, I lost my gall bladder, a common problem i wasn't aware of. I also wasn't told of the changes I needed to make in order for this procedure to be successful. Yes, I lost weight, but only about 90 of the 170 I needed to lose. 17 years later it almost killed me due to scarring and it had to be reversed.

This is a horrible procedure. If you want to read my story, check out my blog. Might make you think twice about it.

Yikes, that's pretty crazy. I wasn't aware of all of the side effects that can happen. I suppose if it's the only choice you have, if you can't control it yourself, I suppose it's necessary, but still.

DietBlog, your summary of this article gets the increased risk wrong. It is an increase of about 65%, not 8%, because 7.65% of obesity surgery patients developed kidney stones vs. 4.63% of the control group.

As the researchers said, "If you were going to rank in order things you would not want to have, most patients would put things like diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, pregnancy complications, all these things are going to rank higher than kidney stones.

"The benefit of gastric bypass surgery is that these patients have reduced mortality, they have increased rate of resolution of diabetes, of heart disease, of high blood pressure. Gastric bypass surgery is fixing a lot of these serious health problems. Perhaps in some patients an increased risk for kidney stone disorder may be one of those tradeoffs."