673d Bariatric Surgery clinic can help you shed pounds

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Tammie Ramsouer
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  If you are 100 pounds or more overweight and diet and exercise alone have not produced results, maybe weight loss surgery is right for you. Even if you have not thought about it, it could be one way for you to lose weight and live longer.

You may be asking, "Where do I go?" and "Who do I talk to about my weight problem?" At the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson hospital, a new bariatric clinic will soon be performing surgeries and is accepting new patients who qualify.

"After seeing one of my friends going through the surgery successfully and losing almost half of her body weight, I began to think about the surgery," said Patricia Pennell, the spouse of a retired military member and future sleeve gastronomy surgery patient. "The surgery has changed her life so dramatically, and seeing her lose all that weight made me want the same for myself."

Patients must be over the age of 18 to be eligible to have the surgery, which has an 85 percent success rate.

Active-duty military members do not qualify, however, due to deployment possibilities.
A patient must have a body mass index of about 40, which is about 100 pounds overweight, for the bariatric doctors to consider performing the surgery.

There is not a true cut-off weight to be eligible for surgery, but patients with body mass indexes above 60 may be required to lose weight prior to being considered for surgery.
"The limit is not set but we try to make it for people 65 years old and younger," said Air Force Maj. Justin Clark, general and bariatric surgeon at the 673d Medical Group on JBER. "We can go over that on a case-by-case basis depending on the patient. We can also set the BMI limit down to 35 if a patient has a serious medical condition, such as high blood pressure, diabetes or sleep apnea. There are steps to take before considering any type of bariatric surgery."

Blood tests and sleep assessments, among other tests, are required to make sure a patient's body is strong enough to go through complex surgeries like these.

"There is a long process to get to surgery so they have to go through diet and exercise training to show that they are able to maintain that rhythm," Clark said.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy and the lap band are the bariatric surgeries that will be offered. Patients should be aware of the different types of surgeries and their possible complications.

"Patients can experience blood clots or infections," Clark said. "We have good protocols in place to minimize that, but there is always risk involved."

Many bariatric patients start to see their weight diminish within six months to one year. It does take time, but it is quite a bit sooner than with diet and exercise alone.

"Most patients will lose weight for about the first eight to 12 months after surgery," Clark said. "But if they go back to old eating habits and do not exercise, they can gain the weight back."

Diet and exercise should always be the first option when attempting to lose weight and get healthy. However, the 673 MDG on JBER is there for those who have exhausted those options with no results.

For more information, contact the 673d MDG Bariatric Clinic at 580-1211.