Americans too fat for Xrays & Scans

Cypros

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This is just amazing.

Study: More Americans too fat for X-rays, scans

Obesity hurting accuracy of images, doctors say.

More and more obese people are unable to get full medical care because they are either too big to fit into scanners, or their fat is too dense for X-rays or sound waves to penetrate, radiologists reported Tuesday.

With 64 percent of the U.S. population either overweight or obese, the problem is worsening, but it represents a business opportunity for equipment makers and hospitals, said Dr. Raul Uppot, a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.

...

The researchers looked more closely at the records of 200 of the patients, who weighed, on average, 239 pounds.

"It is a major issue because ... the patient may still have a tumor, the patient may have appendicitis, the patient may have other inflammatory processes," Uppot said.

"This is affecting radiologists all over the country."

Ultrasounds are most affected, Uppot said.

"In an obese person, because the ultrasound beam does not get to the organs or get to them adequately enough, we cannot get a picture. It looks like a snowstorm -- I don't know if you have seen those televisions where it is just whiteout? It looks like that."

An MRI can get a good picture if the patient can fit into the tube or get onto the table, Uppot said. Some manufacturers have started to make MRI machines with larger-bore holes, but with the cost in the millions of dollars per machine, only large groups or institutions can afford them.

...

One problem is with gastric bypass surgery, where the patients are by definition obese, Uppot said.

"If there is some complication -- abdominal pain or an infection or fever -- they are invariably at higher risk of not being able to be imaged with a CT or MRI," Uppot said.

"For the surgeon, he doesn't want to take the patient back to surgery to explore to see what the problem is," he added.

"For the patient, not knowing what is going on is a big issue. If you tell a patient 'I am sorry -- we just can't sit you on our CT scanner,' that is devastating to hear."
 
Interesting--that doctor said its like looking thru a snowstorm--This is definitely not good news for the gastric bypass crowd since a recent article said 40% of them have complications from the original surgery
 
Well, my husband is a surgeon. You can't imagine what he says sometimes when he gets home; but it's not good in regard to "obese" folks. He takes literally hours cutting through layers of fat to help a person with gall bladder disease, or appendicitis.

He does gall bladder surgery on people 300 lbs sometimes. It's not easy. Frankly, he gets paid little for it with the insurance guidelines. He only does it because he loves what he does, basically. The patients would recover so much better if they were thinner, and might not get the gall bladder disease altogether.

But obese people feel they are discriminated against if people complain about making the chairs larger, and so forth. It seems like just like alcoholics, when you get to a certain point, it's time to seek help. Food addiction is a fatal disease also.

Part of it is all the good food and fat we're used to in this country, but there needs to be self-discipline and help if we have a problem. IMO
 
Marthatex said:
Well, my husband is a surgeon. You can't imagine what he says sometimes when he gets home; but it's not good in regard to "obese" folks. He takes literally hours cutting through layers of fat to help a person with gall bladder disease, or appendicitis.

He does gall bladder surgery on people 300 lbs sometimes. It's not easy. Frankly, he gets paid little for it with the insurance guidelines. He only does it because he loves what he does, basically. The patients would recover so much better if they were thinner, and might not get the gall bladder disease altogether.

But obese people feel they are discriminated against if people complain about making the chairs larger, and so forth. It seems like just like alcoholics, when you get to a certain point, it's time to seek help. Food addiction is a fatal disease also.

Part of it is all the good food and fat we're used to in this country, but there needs to be self-discipline and help if we have a problem. IMO
I have thought about all the HMO types of insurances. And too have thought, that doctors, must have felt the crunch. Being that they have to now follow certain guidelines for fees.
So does Gall Bladder disease have a lot to do with being overweight? If a person, eats healthy and keeps their weight down. Can you be lucky enough, to hopefully not have GB problems? I am curious, because a few in my family have had GB problems.
 
lilpony said:
I have thought about all the HMO types of insurances. And too have thought, that doctors, must have felt the crunch. Being that they have to now follow certain guidelines for fees.
So does Gall Bladder disease have a lot to do with being overweight? If a person, eats healthy and keeps their weight down. Can you be lucky enough, to hopefully not have GB problems? I am curious, because a few in my family have had GB problems.

Here's a great link to info about gallbladder problems. A lady in my office is going through this now and will have surgery in the next few weeks to take it out.

http://www.medicinenet.com/gallstones/page3.htm
 
Marthatex said:
Well, my husband is a surgeon. You can't imagine what he says sometimes when he gets home; but it's not good in regard to "obese" folks. He takes literally hours cutting through layers of fat to help a person with gall bladder disease, or appendicitis.

He does gall bladder surgery on people 300 lbs sometimes. It's not easy. Frankly, he gets paid little for it with the insurance guidelines. He only does it because he loves what he does, basically. The patients would recover so much better if they were thinner, and might not get the gall bladder disease altogether.

But obese people feel they are discriminated against if people complain about making the chairs larger, and so forth. It seems like just like alcoholics, when you get to a certain point, it's time to seek help. Food addiction is a fatal disease also.

Part of it is all the good food and fat we're used to in this country, but there needs to be self-discipline and help if we have a problem. IMO
Perhaps surgeons should charge for time spent in surgery, rather than by the procedure. Or a combination. I guess I never thought about this perspective.

My father-in-law weighs over 400 pounds...diabetic...does not follow his diet at all.....he would get gastric bypass, but doesn't qualify. He has to have special accommodations when he goes for medical tests. One grandkid (not my son, thank goodness) asked him why he was so fat and he replied, "Because I love to eat." It's sad.
 
I read an article (sorry no link) about how hospitals and nursing homes are having to buy larger and stronger beds and wheelchairs and special lifting equipment because higher a percentages of their patients are obese. They said injurues in employees have gone way up, what with trying to lift and assist heavier and heavier patients. It was a financial article and actually recommended investing in equipment manufacturers that sell larger size nursing care equipment because of the aging boomer population and their increasing size.
 
ljwf22 said:
Perhaps surgeons should charge for time spent in surgery, rather than by the procedure. Or a combination. I guess I never thought about this perspective.

My father-in-law weighs over 400 pounds...diabetic...does not follow his diet at all.....he would get gastric bypass, but doesn't qualify. He has to have special accommodations when he goes for medical tests. One grandkid (not my son, thank goodness) asked him why he was so fat and he replied, "Because I love to eat." It's sad.

They can't charge by time. They are paid by insurance companies and Medicare, and it is by procedure and by which insurance company or HMO you belong to.

Fees are regulated according to area. Nice idea tho'.

My husband is thin at least, running along the hospital corridors, over to the office and standing on his feet all day. He has high blood pressure, though, from it all. I guess you can't win.
 
That's a good article about gallbladder disease

Actually most of that surgery is done laparoscopically now; less invasive, less risk and easier on recovery.

(don't know if I spelled that right; used to do medical transcription but not so much now)
 
Marthatex said:
That's a good article about gallbladder disease

Actually most of that surgery is done laparoscopically now; less invasive, less risk and easier on recovery.

(don't know if I spelled that right; used to do medical transcription but not so much now)

I had mine done laproscopically in 1995. I had one small stone that kept trying ot pass through the common bile duct. Hurt like a B*TCH!!! I was back to work 4 days later. No problems at all. It's amazing what they can do with laproscopy now.

My daughter is having a laproscopic procedure done on the 10th to remove cysts from her ovaries and uterus. Absolutely amazing how far things have come.
 
Marthatex said:
Well, my husband is a surgeon. You can't imagine what he says sometimes when he gets home; but it's not good in regard to "obese" folks. He takes literally hours cutting through layers of fat to help a person with gall bladder disease, or appendicitis.

He does gall bladder surgery on people 300 lbs sometimes. It's not easy. Frankly, he gets paid little for it with the insurance guidelines. He only does it because he loves what he does, basically. The patients would recover so much better if they were thinner, and might not get the gall bladder disease altogether.

But obese people feel they are discriminated against if people complain about making the chairs larger, and so forth. It seems like just like alcoholics, when you get to a certain point, it's time to seek help. Food addiction is a fatal disease also.
Part of it is all the good food and fat we're used to in this country, but there needs to be self-discipline and help if we have a problem. IMO

I have never met a POOR doctor, nor have I EVER seen a low medical bill.
 
csds703 said:
I have never met a POOR doctor, nor have I EVER seen a low medical bill.

Why should he be poor? He trained 9 years after college; and was quite poor then and worked 100 hour weeks.

No, medical and hospital bills aren't low. But the fact is that at this time doctors are not being reimbursed well by insurance companies. Many are having trouble keeping their doors open, especially family practice doctors. They have employees, rent, malpractice insurance before they can take home pay. They have to save their own retirement and health insurance.

Medical care is a problem these days, but don't just blame the doctors. We'll be lucky to even see one in a few years, because there aren't going to be as many.
 
Cypros said:
If you tell a patient 'I am sorry -- we just can't sit you on our CT scanner,' that is devastating to hear."
I worked at an MRI facility in Tallahassee several years ago (before the big conglomerates got bigger machines) and we were the only open bed scanner in this entire area. We got overweight people driving 4 hours or more to get to us and we STILL had to tell some of them there was just no way. My boss would ask before they got there if they were "squishy" because you literally could squish some people in there and others you could not. It was horrible.

Many of those people had horrible problems that could not be treated because there was no way to tell what was wrong. :-(
 
Marthatex said:
Why should he be poor? He trained 9 years after college; and was quite poor then and worked 100 hour weeks.

No, medical and hospital bills aren't low. But the fact is that at this time doctors are not being reimbursed well by insurance companies. Many are having trouble keeping their doors open, especially family practice doctors. They have employees, rent, malpractice insurance before they can take home pay. They have to save their own retirement and health insurance.

Medical care is a problem these days, but don't just blame the doctors. We'll be lucky to even see one in a few years, because there aren't going to be as many.
I am not saying he should be poor. I am just saying that doctors are STILL one of the highest paid professions out there as they should be. I agree that the healthcare system in this country is broken but unfortunately alot of docs have lost their heart. Their fight is with the insurance companies not with the patients. In my experience, too many doctors have forgotten that.
 
I'll agree that alot of "docs" have lost their heart for practicing medicine; but they'd like to be doctoring and not fighting with insurance companies and doing constant paperwork, and threat of lawsuit.

I've worked in the offices and the other side of it is many patients are extremely rude, unappreciative and demanding. The doctor can't be woken up at all hours of the night when they're constipated, when he has to work and concentrate the next day. There are other patients that are wonderful, and extremely brave. (cancer)

Many MDs are not highly paid like comparable professionals - attorneys, CEO's, real estate people etc. Some are, some not. Certain fields like orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery (private pay)
anesthesiology still pay well.

My husband and I joke that people hate to pay a $30 co-pay for a checkup, but somehow so many manage to come up with $5000 for a boob job, or who knows how much for face lift? Their own money, too.

That's why so many MD's are converting to spa work, it is the going thing. Believe me my hubby doesn't make nearly that much for an appe or a GB, and may only do 2 cases per day as doctors are plentiful here.

Isn't the subject of this thread obese people?
 
I have seen so many med students/doctors go out into the world with 100,000-200,000 debts in their pockets.This is the cost of education. I have also recently seen ER doctors on contracts see them sold off to other firms. Most of these docs are trying to invest in other avenues as practicing medicine ain't what it used to be.

On the problem with obesity...I saw an overweight tennis mom in Kohl's today and I looked at her children and (not overweight) could see where the feeding could contribute to their future. It is not taking the time or relying on fast food outlets to keep the family fed. I know everyone is so busy but read a label from time to time and consider that we all have a genetic predisposition. That combined with other choices is going to determine our health in the future.
 
Yes, I think I saw on TV the other night some agency is trying to get restaurants to serve smaller portions also. Usually we get way more than we need to eat.
 
like lwjf's father-in-law,my girlfriend's brother is over 400 lbs,5'feet 10 inches tall---He is 53 years old now--When he was in the navy 30 years ago,he only weighed 150 lbs--he is now paying the price; edema,congestive heart failure,kidney failure,bleeding ulcers--his edema was so bad that his legs starting bleeding and wouldn't stop--there was blood all over the house when we went to take him to the hospital--at the hospital,he couldn't even fit into a wheelchair---a fast food junkie,he drives up to the window for all of his meals--very sad but increasingly typical in this day and age
 
Overweight contributes to diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, some cancers, gall bladder disease, what else?

Should be considered a national emergency......
 

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