Do Gastric Bypass Patients Usually Die 10-15 Years After Surgery? Is This True?

 I am neither a bariatric surgeon nor a proponent of surgical weight loss, but a ten year mortality following this surgery is not the standard.  Unfortunately, some will never lose weight without the assistance of surgery.  There are nutritional deficiencies associated with this surgery, but they can be amended with supplements.  Sometimes the health benefits such as resolution of diabetes and improvement of osteoarthritis outweigh the risks.

Hello, 
Thank you for your question. Congratulations on considering this life-changing surgery. I’m delighted that you are doing your homework to educate yourself on the procedure and saddened to learn you are finding such incorrect and misguided information.
I echo the responses of my colleagues in this forum: the assertion that gastric patients usually die 10-15 years after surgery is not only blatantly false, it opposes the reality that gastric bypass surgery extends the length and improves the quality of life of most patients.
A video consultation with a bariatric (obesity) surgeon will be able to further answer this question and any others you may have. Congratulations on reaching out for evidence-based information. I wish you all the best.
Kind regards,
Dr. Moein

No, this is not true.In fact, patients that have obesity surgery and are able to maintain
their weight loss and stay healthy, live longer.

Gastric bypass surgery will increase not decrease your life-span.  Morbid obese patients die 12 - 15 years earlier than normal weight persons.  Patient that undergo bariatric surgery decrease their 5 year mortality by up to 89%.  Weight loss surgery is the recommended treatment for patients that suffer from morbid obesity.  it decreases most of the medical problems related to obesity like diabetes and heart disease which results in decreased mortality.

The answer is absolutely no. The largest study showing death rate after bariatric surgery was done in Sweden and was published a few years ago in the New England Journal of Medicine. They followed approximately 5,000 patients for 10.9 years and they had a 99.9% follow-up rate. Half of the patients had bariatric surgery and the other half were treated with conventional medical therapies for obesity (diet, exercise and behavior modification). The study showed that the patients who had bariatric surgery had a 29% decrease in their death rate over that ten year period. Bariatric surgery is not a detriment to your health whereas obesity is.

Nutritional deficiencies and vitamin deficiencies are usually very easily treated. Most bariatric surgeons will usually check vitamin levels every three months for the first year and yearly after that. If a vitamin deficiency is found, we treat it.