The laproscopic techniques we now use significantly reduce complications from bariatric surgery but patients must understand that all surgeries carry risks, including a heart attack, blood clot, organ injury or failure, hemorrhage, or infection. While it is very rare in laparoscopic procedures, patients can die during or after surgery. Here are some statistics for weight loss surgery risks:

• The adjustable gastric band has the best safety record with a mortality rate of only 0.1 percent (one in a thousand). Most of the complications occur over time and not at the time of surgery. The most common: problems with the implanted port that enables doctors to adjust the band, which occurs in four percent of cases; poor alignment of the band (called a prolapse), three percent; the band penetrating the wall of the stomach (called an erosion), two percent. 
  
  
• Gastric bypass has a mortality rate of 0.2 to 0.5 percent (two to five out of a thousand). Postoperative complications include hemorrhages, in three to four percent of cases; leaks along the staple line in the stomach or at the connection between the stomach and bowels, two-and-a-half percent; intestinal obstruction, one to two percent of the time. Long-term complications include vitamin deficiencies, protein malnutrition, intestinal obstructions, marginal ulcers , strictures of the gastric pouch to intestinal leakage, and internal hernias. 
  
  
• The biliopancreatic diversion procedures have slightly greater postoperative complications than the gastric bypass. Long term complications are similar to those of the gastric bypass, but the risks of protein malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies are greater. 
  
  
• All of the procedures also have the risk of weight loss failure or weight regain.