Am I a candidate

Guidelines for obesity surgery are fairly rigid. They are established by obesity surgical societies (OSSANZ and IFSO) and government bodies (National Institutes of Health) to ensure the safety and efficacy of the operations.

You may be a candidate if:

1. you are more than 40kg above you ideal weight (see BMI)
2. your BMI is above 40 kg/m2
3. your BMI is above 35 and you have a medical condition associated with obesity (co-morbidity)
   

In addition patients must have:

• No endocrine cause of obesity
• Acceptable operative risk
• Understands surgery and risks
• Absence of drug or alcohol problem
• No uncontrolled psychological conditions
• Dedicated to life-style change and follow up

1995 WHO expert committee report

"For adults, the Expert Committee proposed classification of BMI with the cut-off points 25, 30 and 40.This classification is based principally on the association between BMI and mortality."

"The method used to establish BMI cut-off points has been largely arbitrary. In essence, it has been based on visual inspection of the relationship between BMI and mortality: the cut-off of 30 is based on the point of flexion of the curve."