Bariatric surgery doesn’t cut health care costs

"Bariatric surgery has dramatic short-term results, but on a population level its outcomes are far less impressive," said Dr. Edward H. Livingston.

The study by Weiner et al. adds to "the accumulating evidence" that weight-loss surgery carries no particular economic benefit. "Coupled with findings that bariatric surgery confers little to no long-term survival benefit, these observations show that bariatric surgery does not provide an overall societal benefit," he noted.

"In other words, the indications for bariatric surgery should be viewed in terms of individual patient benefit without anticipating that there will be cost savings to a health care system offering this treatment," Dr. Livingston said.

Dr. Edward H. Livingston is with the JAMA Network in Chicago. He is deputy editor of JAMA. These remarks were taken from his Invited Critique accompanying Dr. Weiner’s report (JAMA Surg. 2013;148:561).