Waiting times too long for bariatric surgery
A surgeon at the MUHC examines how long it takes to get bariatric surgery in Canada.
Obesity is now acknowledged as a chronic disease with a number
of related complications, and its prevalence has reached alarming
epidemic proportions. While bariatric surgery is effective at
treating the disease, access to this procedure is still too limited
in Canada. The latest article published by Dr. Nicolas Christou, of
the Â鶹AV Health Centre (MUHC), in the June issue of
the Canadian Journal of Surgery assesses the waiting times
for this procedure.
According to the study, the average waiting time for bariatric
surgery in Canada is 5 years, a timeframe that is long compared
with the 8-week average for cancer surgery or the 18-month average
for cosmetic surgery. Yet many studies have shown that this type of
procedure reduces the risk of death over 5 years from 40% to 85%:
bariatric surgery can therefore save lives.
"Waiting times for bariatric surgery in Canada are much too long,"
Dr. Christou stated. "However, the provincial government's recent
announcement of additional money for our speciality is a positive
and beneficial step. This funding will help us address our main
obstacle, a lack of resources, and therefore represents real hope
for our patients."
This investment should also have positive spinoffs in the
medium-term for the health care system. Another article recently
published by Dr. Christou in the World Journal of Surgery showed
that bariatric surgery is the only treatment that ensures major and
lasting weight loss. It can also significantly improve the
long-term health of these patients by reducing their risk of
developing obesity-related complications, such as diabetes, cancer,
or heart and respiratory diseases. The costs to the health care
system to treat these related pathologies would therefore decrease,
and the initial investment would lead to savings within 3
years.
Dr. Nicolas Christou
Dr. Nicolas Christou is Director of Bariatric surgery at the MUHC
and a researcher in the Infection and Immunity Axis of the Research
Institute of the MUHC. He is also Professor of Surgery at the
Faculty of Medicine of Â鶹AV.
Partners
This article was co-authored by Dr. Nicolas Christou, MUHC, and Dr.
Evangelos Efthimiou, MUHC.
The Research Institute of the Â鶹AV Health
Centre (RI MUHC) is a world-renowned biomedical and
health-care hospital research centre. Located in Montreal, Quebec,
the institute is the research arm of the MUHC, the university
health center affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at Â鶹AV
University. The institute supports over 600 researchers, nearly
1200 graduate and post-doctoral students and operates more than 300
laboratories devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental and
clinical research. The Research Institute operates at the forefront
of knowledge, innovation and technology and is inextricably linked
to the clinical programs of the MUHC, ensuring that patients
benefit directly from the latest research-based knowledge.
The Research Institute of the MUHC is supported in part by the
Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec.
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