The NHS has seen a ninefold rise in five years in the number of surgical procedures performed on obese patients to try to reduce their weight.
The figures illustrate the challenge the government faces in trying to tackle the problem of obesity. In 2008-09, the NHS carried out 4,246 weight loss operations, including stomach stapling and fitting gastric bands, compared with 480 procedures in 2003-04, according to the NHS Information Centre.
Of the operations performed in 2008-09, 42 involved full or partial removal of the stomach; 1,378 involved fitting a gastric band to make the stomach smaller; 504 involved stomach stapling; 2,210 involved a gastric bypass; and 124 inserting a “bubble” in the stomach to fill it up. Patients may have undergone more than one procedure in the same operation. The upward trend in the data suggests the figures for 2010 could be higher.
Read more at The Guardian.
Tags: Obesity
