I am about 90 to 100 lbs overweight. I have multiple health issues which include gastroparesis, CIDP, and have just had a large DVT in the central veins and left arm. With all these medical issues, am I a candidate for bariatric surgery?
Academic Title: Professor
Board Certifications:
Surgery
From a weight standpoint in general, people who are 100 pounds overweight are candidates as are people about 70 pounds overweight if they have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, or sleep apnea.
While every patient has to be evaluated on an individual basis, the specific health issues you mentioned do raise some concerns. For gastroparesis, most of these procedures count on normal stomach function to allow foods to go through properly post-operatively. While people with gastroparesis have had this surgery, there would be increased risk of functional problems post-operatively.
For Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, it would depend on the extent of disease. To obtain the benefits of these procedures, some sort of exercise is essential. If the CIDP has not eliminated the possibility of exercise, then that would be less concerning than if it did.
Pulmonary embolism from DVT is one of the two most common causes of death after bariatric surgery. People who have had a DVT are at significantly increased risk of getting another one after any kind of surgery. Again, while people who have had a DVT do sometimes get bariatric surgery, the risks are higher. With multiple risk elevating health issues, the benefit to risk ratio changes significantly and the decision to undergo such risk becomes very individualized.