Anesthetic Considerations in Patients Undergoing Bariatric Surgery: A Review Article

CONTEXT: This article discusses the anesthetic considerations in patients undergoing bariatric surgery in the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases of surgery. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: This review includes studies involving obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery. Searches have been conducted in PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Review using the terms obese, obesity, bariatric, anesthesia, perioperative, preoperative, perioperative, postoperative, and their combinations. RESULTS: Obesity is a major worldwide health problem associated with many comorbidities. Bariatric surgery has been proposed as the best alternative treatment for extreme obese patients when all other therapeutic options have failed. CONCLUSIONS: Anesthetists must completely assess the patients before the surgery to identify anesthesia- related potential risk factors and prepare for management during the surgery.