bariatric surgery in ITP patients

Hi all,

my wife is a ITP patient diagnosed with ITP about 13 years ago. post enn number of courses of steroids and gama globulin transfusions has a splenectomy done over 8 years ago.

post splenectomy platelets have stabilised in the range of 95,000-115,000 and have stayed in that band with / range ever since.

she has lost most of the weight gained on account of the steroids

she is looking at doing a bariatric surgery and cant find any research on the same on the www.
any information on post op complications specific to ITP patients will be highly appreciated.

am trying my level best to convince her out of the surgery, since i am not very comfortable with her doing the same.

thanks in advance for all the help

puneet

Her platelets seem to be good enough for the surgery. A surgery could knock her out of remission, but there is a good chance that it will not.

What are the benefits of the surgery?

hi sandi,
the bariatric surgery is a stomach stapling surgery
other than accelerate the weight loss it has no other benefits

personally am dead against it

I understand that, but if her weight is jeopardizing her health, that could end up being a bigger threat than ITP. I don't know how much she weighs, but being overweight puts a person at risk for diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, etc.

It's all about benefit vs risk. The risk of dying from ITP is very, very small, but the risk of dying from obesity is fairly high. A reputable surgeon will not perform bariatric surgery unless a person really needs it.