Surgery for morbid obesity gives dramatic improvement in gastrointestinal symptoms, as well as reducing weight.

Morbid obesity - that is, carrying a medically dangerous amount of overweight - is often accompanied by a range of digestive symptoms. Abdominal pain, irritable bowel, and gastric reflux are common. Now researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham report that gastric bypass surgery makes these bothersome symptoms go away.

Gastric bypass involves reducing the stomach to the size of a thumb. It may be a radical solution, but it does produce weight loss which could, in some cases, literally save the person's life. The research team compared gastrointestinal symptoms before surgery with those in a group who were not overweight. As expected, the morbidly obese group had many more problems. But after surgery, there was little difference between the two groups. Not only had the obese people lost the weight they needed to, they also improved their quality of life through having the digestive symptoms disappear.

Source

American Society for Bariatric Surgery 28th June 2002