Salem Hospital Bariatric Surgery Center

Many factors contribute to obesity including genetics, culture, socioeconomic levels, psychosocial standings and the environment. Gender is also a contributing factor; women are more likely than men to be extremely obese.

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in America as well as throughout much of the world. Nearly 2/3 of the U.S. population is overweight, while 1 out of 20 persons are classified as “morbidly obese.”

Morbid obesity refers to obesity so severe that it increases a person’s chance of being diagnosed with a variety of other severe illnesses and, as a result, increases their risk of death compared with persons of healthy weight.

Obesity is caused by the imbalance between the number of calories consumed and the number of calories burned with activity.

Weight loss treatments such as behavior modification, diets, exercise, and pills are often unsuccessful in achieving and, more importantly, maintaining significant long-lasting weight loss.

Since 1991, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recommended that well-motivated and informed morbidly obese patients for whom other methods of weight loss have not worked should be offered Bariatric Surgery (which comes from the Greek word baros meaning “weight”), also known as Weight Loss Surgery (WLS).

The Salem Hospital Bariatric Surgery Center is pleased to offer the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (open and laparoscopic) and Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding as an option for weight loss surgery for selected patients.

Patients will need to qualify for this surgery based on a detailed preoperative assessment by a multi-disciplinary team to determine their readiness for surgery, their expectations for the procedure, and their understanding of the risks of the operation.

Qualifying patients must be committed to long-term follow-up with the Salem Hospital Bariatric Surgery Center team after surgery, and lifelong behavioral and dietary modifications.

Together, we can help you achieve durable, significant weight loss as a start to a whole new chapter in your life.