Bariatric surgery use among U.S. adults rose briefly after the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders expanded eligibility in 2022. Then it went into a sustained decline, according to a study published June 13 in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.
Abdulrahman Alsuhibani of Qassim University’s College of Pharmacy in Saudi Arabia analyzed 215,072 primary bariatric procedures. The data came from the TriNetX electronic medical record network, which covers 69 U.S. healthcare organizations, and spans 2018 to 2024.
Here are five takeaways from the study:
1. From 2018 through the first quarter of 2020, the rate held steady at about 78 procedures per 100,000 adults each quarter. COVID-19 cut it by 11.07 per 100,000 in the second quarter of 2020.
2. Volumes recovered through 2021, climbing 1.76 per 100,000 per quarter.
3. After the guideline expansion in early 2022, the rate rose by 3.66 per 100,000. It then fell 2.42 per 100,000 every quarter through 2024.
4. Sleeve gastrectomy made up 65% to 70% of procedures, and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass about 25%. The average patient’s age dropped from 55.6 to 50.9 years, and about 70% of patients were women. The South had the most procedures, at 33%, followed by the Northeast at 29%.
5. The study suggests that easier access to GLP-1 receptor agonists likely helped drive the decline after 2022. The author concluded that the guideline expansion produced little lasting growth in bariatric surgery.
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