Guidelines published to help patients avoid complications in weight-loss surgeries overseas

The guidelines for patients include discussing their decision to travel with their GP beforehand, understanding the risks of surgery, and ensuring the doctor is appropriately qualified to perform the surgery prior to making the decision.

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has published a list of guidelines for patients considering travelling abroad for bariatric surgery, in a bid to help them manage the greater risk involved in having an operation in another country.

To date, eight people are officially known to have died while undergoing procedures abroad and, of those, several were during or soon after bariatric surgery.