30 to 60 Minute Surgery Cures Severe Obesity.

Business Editors/Health Writers

DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 28, 1999

Roseanne Barr and Carnie Wilson, daughter of Beach Boys Brian Wilson, have beaten the battle of the bulge with surgery for obesity.

Obesity has been declared an American "Epidemic." Now in a remarkable new development Dr. Robert Rutledge, a surgeon in Durham, North Carolina, is reporting on over 300 severely overweight individuals who have beaten the American "Obesity Epidemic" with a 30 to 60 minute surgery that requires 5 inch incisions and only two nights in the hospital for most patients.

Patients from 40 states around America and Puerto Rico have come to Dr. Robert Rutledge to undergo the Mini-Gastric Bypass to permanently lose weight and in most cases relive themselves of associated medical illnesses of diabetes, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, high cholesterol, urinary incontinence and crippling osteoarthritis. Dr. Rutledge maintains a web site at http://clos.net where hundreds of his post op patients congregate to prepare for and describe their experiences with the surgery. Hundreds of patients write comments like the following:

Hi Dr. R.,

I hope that this finds you well and happy, and getting into a festive holiday mood. I am now a little over 4 1/2 months since the surgery and I just this morning reached 100 lbs. lost. I'm feeling great, still sleeping like a baby, and getting many compliments from my co-workers. And, of course, fitting into clothing that I had out-grown months or years previously. My high blood pressure is gone it is now a very steady 120/70, my diabetes is gone, blood sugar is in the 85 range, and I have my old energy level back. Bottom line is, this surgery has exceeded my expectations, and I'm thrilled," says patient Michael Simon.

Dr. Rutledge reports on a consecutive series of over 300 laparoscopic surgical patients that underwent the "Mini-Gastric Bypass." The "Mini-Gastric Bypass" takes features from several General Surgical and Bariatric procedures to create an effective minimally invasive treatment of morbid obesity.

The operating times have decreased from an average of 278 + 54 minutes to 59 + 32 minutes with the shortest operating time recently being 34 minutes. Hospital stays averaged 2.6 days with 90 percent of patients staying only two nights and 94 percent staying less than three nights.

Many patients returned to work in four days.

The average preoperative weight of patients in this series was 300 lbs (BMI = 49) and the mean weight loss at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months was 30, 50, 80 and 145 lbs respectively. Loss of excess body weight at one year was excellent (78 percent). Complete reversal or marked improvement was seen in associated medical illnesses (diabetes, osteoarthritis, hypertension, gastro esophageal reflux disease-GERD, sleep apnea, urinary incontinence, etc.). Patient satisfaction was graded as excellent in 98 percent of patients. Dr. Rutledge concludes that the Mini-Gastric Bypass appears to be a safe and highly efficacious method of treating clinically severe obesity.

SOURCE: DigitalWork ( http://www.digitalwork.com )

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