A study has discovered that the use of bariatric (weight loss) surgery has increased ten-fold in hospitals in England since 2000. One reason for this rapid rise is increased demand from obese patients.
Bariatric surgery is performed on people who are dangerously obese. Techniques include gastric banding, gastric bypass, or sleeve gastrectomy, which reduce the size of the stomach in various ways.
According to Science Daily:
“A total of 6,953 bariatric procedures were carried out during the study period. The number of procedures rose more than ten-fold from 238 in 2000 to 2,543 in 2007.”