Mortality following bariatric surgery isn’t as high as previously reported, an updated meta-analysis has concluded.
Bariatric surgery was associated with a 30-day mortality rate of 0.08 percent (95% CI 0.01%-0.24%), down from the 0.3 percent risk as reported in previous research, according to Su-Hsin Chang, PhD, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., and colleagues.
Mortality rates increase after 30 days, but only to the previously reported rate — 0.31percent (95% CI 0.01%-0.75%), they wrote online in JAMA Surgery.
Myriad papers evaluating risks associated with bariatric surgery — as well as different outcomes and comorbidities — have been published over the past year.
In October, a peer rating strategy that evaluated outcomes in bariatric surgery based on a surgeon’s colleague-perceived experience or quality was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which accurately assessed complication and mortality rates for those in the highest versus lowest quartile of perceived quality.
A different scale — this time evaluating surgical sites rather than rates based on surgeon — was published in JAMA Surgery. The analysis showed that a composite scale that measured procedure complications, patient and surgeon volume, and other outcomes offered an objective measure of quality for bariatric surgery centers.
