The close positive relationship between bone and weight has been known for many years. However, it has recently become clear that obesity doesn’t necessarily protect against fracture. Furthermore, with the exponential increase in obesity in today’s society, there has been a rapid increase in bariatric surgery resulting in large weight losses. Weight loss is known to result in bone loss but the clinical iimplications of this in the morbidly obese have only been studied more recently.
Following a case presentation, this talk will focus on some of the evidence for fracture risk in the obese, on what happens to bone following various types of bariatric surgery, the data for fracture risk following bariatric surgery and what measures may be useful for optimal bone health post bariatric surgery. It will also touch briefly on some of the potential mechanisms for bone loss.