Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - Updated: 02:43 AM EST s waistlines in this country continue ... Risk weighs heavily in choice on

Submitted by admin on Wed, 2006-11-29 08:00. ::

The number of bariatric surgeries, the term used to describe weight-loss operations, has quadrupled since 2000 to 171,000 in 2005, according to the American Society of Bariatric Surgery and the number keeps growing.

Doctors say surgery candidates, such as Dorchester’s Chris “Tiger” Stockbridge, have to weigh the chance of dying from the surgery with the risk of dying from an obesity-related problem, such as diabetes or a heart attack.

Dr. Scott Shikora, chief of bariatric surgery at Tufts New England Medical Center, said for some patients the risk of dying from obesity is six to 10 times greater than the risk from gastric bypass surgery.

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