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B eing overweight itself is associated with increased mortality and morbidities from serious diseases. Previous papers have demonstrated a solid line of evidence that nonoperative methods alone have not been effective in achieving a medically significant stable weight loss in severely obese patients. It has been shown that the majority of patients regain all the weight lost over the next five years. Surgical treatment is medically necessary because it is the only proven method of achieving longterm weight control for the morbidly obese individuals. Surgical treatment is not a cosmetic procedure. Morbid obesity correlates with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 kg/m2 or 35 kg/m2 with comobidities such as hypertension, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, sleep apnea, hypoventilation, glucose intolerance, and diabetes mellitus in western countries. However, in Asian countries including Korea, the indications for surgical treatment of obesity should be reestablished. Surgical methods include gastric restrictive, malabsorptive, and combined. Recently, laparoscopic surgery has been introduced in the field of bariatric surgery.
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