RA and RNY
From a surgical and medical point of view it's safe to do a roux Y gastric bypass on a patient with rheumatoid arthritis. The weight loss should help relieve much of the pain that your friend has in her weight bearing joints.
The only problem that I would foresee is that your friend would need to markedly limit her use on nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs such as aspirin or indomethacin, or ibuprofen. If she were to use these drugs, she would be at an increased risk of developing a gastrojejunal anastomotic ulcer. This risk could be reduced but not eliminated if she takes an acid blocker such as omeprazole.
Some surgeons would recommend an adjustable gastric band in this situation. Here there would be less of a problem with use of the NSAIDs, but there might be less weight loss as well.
The medical literature isn't a great deal of help here. If one does a search on PubMed, for rheumatoid arthritis and either gastric bypass or adjustable band, there are no references cited.
Your friend's situation calls for a good three way conversation between her rheumatologist, her bariatric surgeon, and herself.
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