Nearly 90% of gastric bypass patients experienced at least one adverse event in the years following the procedure, according to a cross-sectional Danish study.

In approximately two-thirds of patients, the symptoms were severe enough to prompt contact with a general practitioner or other healthcare professional, and 29% of patients experienced events requiring hospitalization, reported a research team led by Sigrid Gribsholt, MD, of the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. The most common adverse events were fatigue, abdominal pain, anemia, and dumping syndrome, Gribsholt and colleagues reported online in JAMA Surgery. Women, younger patients, and smokers were among those at higher risk for experiencing adverse events, the investigators found.

Despite the high prevalence of adverse events, the majority of patients (87%) reported feeling better after the surgery, Gribsholt and colleagues noted. However, the amount of symptoms and health care contacts after RYGB surgery is rather high and represents a significant burden from an individual perspective as well as for society," Gribsholt and colleagues concluded.

"Development of new weight loss treatments with less risk of subsequent symptoms should be a high priority," they said."This is a good snapshot of patients post-op from RYGB, but it is not a complete representative sample," said Craig Primack, MD, of the Scottsdale Weight Loss Center in Arizona.

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