Media Release:
EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12.01am, 10 November, 2014
Weight loss surgery helps people regain
health - and reduces healthcare bill
National Bariatric Surgery Registry offers fascinating insights into
complexities of obesity
Figures released today show that bariatric surgeons in the UK are increasingly
successful at helping people control their weight - even though they are operating
on people who are getting heavier and have more health complications at the point
of surgery.
The National Bariatric Surgery Registry is the major source of data on the
effectiveness of weight-loss surgery in the UK and the newly-published 2014
registry report has data on 18,283 operations operated between 2010 and 2013.
Of the people treated, the average body mass index (BMI) was 48.8, meaning that
patients were almost twice the weight they should be for their height. 73.2% of
men and 71.5% of women had what is known as functional impairment – eg, they
couldn’t climb three flights of stairs without resting. After surgery more than half
of those patients (56.0%) could manage three flights without resting.
An increasing proportion of men are seeking surgery. In 2006, 16% of patients were
male while by 2013 this figure had risen to almost 26%.
Turning to diabetes, 65.1% of patients with type 2 diabetes at the point of surgery
showed no indication of diabetes two years after surgery and were able to stop
their diabetic medications - a cost saving to the health service.
For the first time, the NBSR has a section on adolescent bariatric surgery with data
on more than 550 patients aged under 25 years old. In this group 57.2% couldn’t
climb three flights of stairs and almost 40% had a BMI of 50 or higher.
Mr Richard Welbourn, Consultant Surgeon, Chair of the NBSR and the President of
BOMSS, says: “Severe and complex obesity is a life-long condition associated with
many major medical conditions, the cost of which threatens to bankrupt the NHS.
For severely obese people, medical therapy, lifestyle changes and attempts at
dieting rarely succeed in maintaining long-term, clinically beneficial weight loss
due to the hormonal effects of being obese.
“Our data shows that there is great benefit from bariatric surgery for all the
diseases studied, in particular, the effect on diabetes has important implications
for the NHS. Bariatric surgery cost-effectively improves the health of obese
patients.
“Surgery is one aspect of a multi-disciplinary approach to care that involves many
healthcare and allied healthcare professionals. These include dietitians, specialist
nurses, psychologists, bariatric physicians, anaesthetists, theatre teams and
recovery staff, ward nurses, outpatient staff, radiographers, radiologists and
exercise therapists. The close working and performance of the MDT is integral to
the overall outcome.
“The NBSR is the major source of data on the effectiveness of UK bariatric surgery.
I am very happy to say that results from the NBSR shows that patients with severe
and complex obesity can continue to have confidence in bariatric procedures.”
In the foreword to the NBSR Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, Medical Director of the NHS
says: "Obesity and bariatric surgery are rapidly rising up the NHS agenda as a
consequence of social and lifestyle choices. As in all branches of medicine,
prevention is better than cure, but this report clearly demonstrates that when
required, bariatric surgery is effective and safe. This is based on detailed data on
over 18,000 patients. The survival rate of over 99.9% and the decreasing length of
time spent in hospital is all the more impressive given the increasing illness of
patients being sent for surgery."
The NBSR data, showing the effectiveness of bariatric surgery, comes at a time
when lower NHS surgery tariffs which could restrict the number of bariatric
operations are being proposed for 2015 – 16 and BOMSS members have expressed
concern over the new arrangements.
The NBSR data has been compiled from 161 surgeons from 137 hospitals and it
reveals that between the years 2010 and 2013, the average BMI of bariatric
patients increased from 48.5 to 48.8; the average number of obesity-related
diseases such as type 2 diabetes increased from 3.2 to 3.4 and the average obesity
surgery mortality risk score (OSMRS) increased from 1.6 to 1.8, meaning that
patients were becoming increasingly sick at the point of surgery.
However, the Registry also shows that the average post-operative stay has fallen
from 3.1 days to 2.7 days. These figures show that the patients are sicker at the
point of surgery but their post-op stay in hospital is decreasing, even taking into
account an increase in more complex sleeve gastrectomy operations and a fall in
gastric band surgery.
The National Bariatric Surgery Registry is part of the British Obesity and Metabolic
Surgery Society (BOMSS), plus database specialists Dendrite Clinical Systems.
- Ends -
Notes to editors
For more information – including case studies - please contact Helen Riley 020 8348
3103 / 07931 300 425, helenriley@headlinemedia.co.uk or Sarah Ghabina, RCS
press office 020 7869 6047, sghabina@rcseng.ac.uk
An extract from the NBSR Report can be viewed here from November 10:
http://www.bomss.org.uk/nbsr/
The NBSR was formed in 2009 as a collaboration between three specialist surgical
societies - the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons (ALS), the Association of Upper
Gastrointestinal Surgeons (AUGIS) and the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery
Society (BOMSS) together with software partner Dendrite Clinical Systems Limited.
It has largely operated without public funding. Bariatric surgery - one of the 10
specialties to participate in the first publication of Surgeon-Level Consultant
Outcomes in 2013 - received some funding from the Healthcare Quality
Improvement Partnership for the 2014 data release. Day-to-day administration of
the Registry was taken over by BOMSS in January 2014. Committee members do not
receive remuneration.