Service Line Bariatrics

Service Line Bariatrics conducts business for the treatment of obesity, with the focus on surgery, above all using the gastric by-pass method. Today surgery is the only really successful method for treating obesity in the long term. A high degree of specialisation is important to be able to achieve high quality and patient benefit, and the clinics have multi-disciplinary teams in order to be able to offer the best possible treatment and follow-up of the patients.

The prevalence of obesity is increasing epidemically in the western world. WHO estimates that close to 150 million people suffer from obesity in Europe. These people usually develop different kinds of secondary diseases such as diabetes type II, hypertension and infertility. Both the excessive weight as well as the co-morbidities cause great patient suffering and high health care spending. Studies show that the only successful treatment for obesity is surgery.

Greater awareness of these effects among both patients and payors has led to an increased demand for bariatric surgery in many countries. The number of operations is increasing dramatically on most markets, but remains well short of the actual need.

Studies show that gastric by-passes can lead to greater weight loss and an alleviation or cure of more associated conditions than other methods. The clearest example is that of type II diabetes, where studies show that as many as 82–98% enjoy a major improvement in the condition or are cured.

Diabetes type II is a commonly occurring secondary disease in people suffering from obesity and can lead to complications in the feet, eyes, kidneys, heart etc. In many countries diabetes is the single most expensive disease for society. In recent years many scientific studies have been able to show that obesity operations performed on patients with both obesity and diabetes lead to the diabetes totally regressing in 50-80% of the patients (including both banding and gastric by-pass techniques) and to other patients improving considerably. Other weight-reducing treatment can also lead to diabetes type II improving significantly. Institutions and organisations in various parts of the world are therefore beginning to look at the advantages of combining these areas of treatment. Global Health Partner has through an agreement with the Ministry of Health in the United Arab Emirates started a clinic in the emirate Ajman, with the focus on the treatment of diabetes and obesity.