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Obesity and the need for bariatric surgery in P akistan
Author(s) -
Shah Adil Aijaz,
Shariff Amir Hafeez
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
asian journal of endoscopic surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.372
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1758-5910
pISSN - 1758-5902
DOI - 10.1111/ases.12048
Subject(s) - medicine , obesity , surgery , obesity surgery , weight loss , gastric bypass
After establishing a foothold in the West, the pandemic of obesity now threatens to spin out of control in the developing nations of A sia and the I ndian subcontinent. Like many of its neighbors, P akistan has witnessed an unprecedented growth in the number of overweight and obese individuals in its population, and obesity is proving to be an issue of considerable public health concern. Conventional medical therapies for obesity and related complications have proven to be less than effective, especially in the population of the southeast, which appears to be inherently predisposed to developing obesity‐related complications. Bariatric surgery is fast emerging as a definitive therapeutic alternative for obesity and has proven to be highly successful and cost‐effective at producing remission of complications of the same. In this article, we expound the need for introducing and incorporating bariatric surgery as part of the therapeutic protocols for obese individuals of S outh A sian descent suffering from the chronic and debilitating complications of obesity.