Appolo launches obesity clinic in city

Kolkata, Jun 5 (UNI) If India is a country with a growing number of curvy Aishwariyas and hunky Hritik Roshans, it is also a nation of growing obesity, with multiple related ailments.

According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, at least 17 per cent of the male and 15 per cent of the female population in India are obese.

Thus opening of world class Bariatric Surgery Clinic in the city's Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals today renewed hopes of a hassle free of losing weight.

"It (Bariatric Surgery) is the only permanent solution to people suffering from severe obesity," said B Ramana, advanced laproscopic and bariatric surgeon who would head the department and work with a team of doctors, including noted diabetologist and endocrinologist Tirthankar Choudhary.

"We are also trying to work out with the medical insurance companies so that the patient is reimbursed of the cost of surgery which can vary from Rs 1,50,000 to Rs 2,00,000," he said.

"There is a previously unrecognised need for morbidly obese patients to undergo surgery to reduce weight. We call it bariatric surgery and it is the only proven way to achieve major weigh loss and sustain it," said Ramana.

"The procedure involves reducing the capacity of the stomach by stapling it which reduces the patient's food intake and the digestive system is short circuited to decrease absorption of fats. Adequate nutritional supplement of iron and vitamins ensures that there no deficiency," he said.

"The two processes that would be used mainly are Laparoscopic Gastric Surgery and Sleeve Gastrectomy. Bariatic Surgical Procedures are considered apt for people with severe obesity, and not for individuals with a mild weight problem," he added..

Bariatic surgery not only reduces excess weight, it as seen in 80-90 per cent of the cases that diabetes, hypertension and snorer's disease is also cured.

Dr Ramana said, "Bariatic Surgery, which costs 15 per cent lesser in India that in the US and offers no waiting time to patients unlike in the West, is poised to become a huge medical tourism revenue earner." Singer Usha Uthup, who was present on the occasion, narrated her own problems with indisciplined food habits and assured to offer her support for any endevaour in obesity cure.

India itself is one of the top ten obese nations, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) and as a result has an estimated 35 million diabetic, Ramana said.

"In this new development of laparoscopic bariatric surgery, there are many procedures that we use. In one type of procedure, the capacity of the stomach to take food is drastically reduced," said Ramana.

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