Norwich - A week after The William W. Backus Hospital began advertising that it would start offering bariatric surgery, 25 people had signed up to attend the first information session.

On Tuesday night, when general surgeon Dr. Mark Tousignant began speaking at the session, 35 people had crowded into the room, and another two dozen had already signed up by phone for the next informational meeting on the weight loss surgery in August.

"They asked if they can bring a friend or their husband, and I tell them yes, it's imperative that they have support," said Liz Sibicky, registered nurse in charge of education at Backus' newly established Weight Loss Center. "I tell them that this is about life management. The surgery is just a tool. It's not cut and run and you're done."

Tousignant, who initiated bringing bariatric surgery and the complementary nutrition, cooking and other support programs to start the Backus Weight Loss Center, wasn't surprised at the level of interest. Over the years he's been removing gall bladders, repairing hernias and removing cancerous colon polyps - in his words, "the usual stuff" - he's seen many obese patients who've struggled and failed at nonsurgical approaches to weight loss and were eager for another answer.

"There was really nothing in the area for these patients," Tousignant said.

Already there are several patients who've finished the initial screenings and are lined up have the first bariatric surgeries at Backus next month, once the lengthy insurance approval process is complete. The hospital will be offering one of the four main types of bariatric surgery, laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, in which a saline-filled silicone band is wrapped around the upper part of the stomach. That restricts the opening so that patients feel full more quickly. The band is adjusted in office visits to the doctor, typically several times after the surgery.

"We could be doing 150 to 200 of these a year," Tousignant said. "Unfortunately, obesity is not something that's going away. It's on the rise."

Twelve of the state's 33 hospitals offer the surgery, according to the Connecticut Hospital Association, but Backus will be the first in this part of the state. Because the program entails at least a couple of months of pre-surgical screenings, surgery education and dietary counseling sessions, plus monthly post-surgical visits with the doctor for the first year, being able to sign on with a hospital close to home is critical to many patients' willingness and ability to make the commitment and follow through, Tousignant said.

Several who attended the first informational session had previously made inquiries about getting the surgery at other hospitals, but the distance from their homes proved an insurmountable obstacle, said Shawn Mawhiney, Backus spokesman. Others at Tuesday's meeting had "tried everything" but ultimately only gained back all the weight they had lost, said Sibicky, who herself had bariatric surgery seven years ago at another Connecticut hospital.

"The problem, unlike smoking or drugs or alcohol, is that you can't give up eating," she said. "You can eat your way through" the surgical restrictions on food intake.

And neither is surgically altering stomach capacity a foolproof solution. About 20 percent of those who have the surgery don't achieve the success benchmark of losing at least 25 percent of their weight.

"But I don't know of anything better to offer them," Tousignant said. Those who do succeed, he said, are those who make a lifetime commitment after surgery to regular exercise, eating well and eating smaller meals, and also have the support of family and friends. Typically, patients who have the band surgery lose 40 percent of their extra body weight after a year, and after five years lose 55 percent to 60 percent, he added.

Sibicky said she draws on her own experiences as she fields calls to the weight loss center and emphasizes with patients that there's no quick fix, even with surgery.

"The surgery is only part of what you need to do," she said. "It's a life process."

Patients with underlying problems such as depression or binge eating behavior aren't considered candidates for the surgery until those issues are resolved, Tousignant said. A psychiatrist is part of the weight loss center staff to help patients begin that process.

Nationally, about 220,000 people had bariatric surgery in the United States last year, a number that has grown steadily over the past two decades as safety of the various procedures has improved, more hospitals have begun offering it, and more insurance companies agreed to pay for it, recognizing that the health care costs of obesity long-term are greater than the costs of the surgery.

At the same time, the obesity rate is now at about 33 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Centers for Disease Control, compared to 13 percent in the 1960s. Connecticut's obesity rate of 21 percent, while lower than the national average, still represents a large portion of the population with a condition harmful to their overall health, Tousignant said.

In 2004, Medicare agreed to begin paying for the surgery, which can cost from $14,000 to $26,000, depending on the hospital and the procedure, provided the person has another life-threatening health problem like Type 2 diabetes or heart disease that's exacerbated by their weight. The surgery being done at Backus will cost $16,000 to $18,000, Tousignant said. According to the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, of the 15 million Americans with morbid obesity, only 1 percent of those eligible for the surgery have had it. Offering it locally, Tousignant said, should provide eastern Connecticut patients with an option that makes a difficult but usually effective step easier.

"This is a life-saving measure," he said.

j.benson@theday.com

UPCOMING SESSIONS

The Backus Weight Loss Center will host information sessions on bariatric surgery from 6 to 7 p.m. Aug. 10 and 31 and Sept. 14 and 23 in the Backus Outpatient Care Center. To register, call (860) 425-8740.

BY THE NUMBERS:* Definition of obesity: body mass index, or BMI, greater than 35 with diabetes, heart disease or other conditions, or 100 pounds or more over ideal body weight.* Risk of death from bariatric surgery: 0.1 percent.* Risk of major complications from the surgery: 4 percent.* After surgery, more than 70 percent of patients with Type 2 diabetes no longer need treatment.* About 220,000 bariatric surgeries were done in the United States in 2009.* In 2009, 2,759 bariatric surgeries were done at Connecticut hospitals.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control, American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery; Connecticut Hospital Association.