Robotic-Assisted Bariatric Surgery

Abstract

Obesity is a serious public health problem in the United States. The prevalence of obesity is growing every year, not only in adults but also in the pediatric population (Ogden et al., 2002). Obesity is now the second leading cause of death in the United States after tobacco-related disease, and 400,000 Americans died of obesity-related causes in 2000 (Mokdad et al., 2004). It is well known that obesity contributes to such comorbidities as noninsulindependent diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and hypertri-glyceridemia or hypercholesterolemia. Surgical treatment of morbid obesity is recognized as long-term effective therapy, and its goal is to limit or eliminate these comorbidities (Dixon & O’Brien, 2002; Giusti et al., 2004).