Obesity: Health economics of bariatric surgery-benefit versus cost

摘要

Maciejewski and colleagues compared inpatient and outpatient expenditure for the 3 years preceding and 3 years following gastric bypass surgery for 847 patients who were operated on at US Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centres, and compared costs over 6 years for 847 matched controls from a VA registry who did not undergo surgery. This analysis is important because it examines a cohort that is older, predominantly male and has a greater burden of disease than the usual bariatric surgery cohorts that have previously been examined in relation to health costs.