Maria Shepherd06.03.10
Bariatric Surgery — A Growth Industry?
The global obesity pandemic impacts almost all industries within medical devices and the life sciences sectors. Some analysts are now calling this pandemic a specific driver to procedure rates.1 Bariatric surgery may mitigate the impact of this driver, making tracking of its influence an important metric.
Bariatric surgery, (better known as weight loss surgery), is performed on dangerously obese people to help them lose weight. The weight loss is achieved by reducing the size of the stomach with an implanted medical device (gastric banding), through removal of a portion of the stomach (sleeve gastrectomy or biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch), or by resecting and rerouting the small intestines to a small stomach pouch (gastric bypass surgery).
Key Takeaways
• While global obesity rates are surging, and the annual global increase in obese and morbidly obese individuals is ~1 percent,2 the absolute rate of bariatric surgery decreased during the past five years (135 percent increase), compared with the preceding five years (266 percent increase).
• There are diametrically opposed trends for Laparoscopic Adjusted Gastric Banding (AGB) and Laparoscopic Roux-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) in Europe compared with the United States and Canada.
• Sleeve gastrectomy is still performed in 5.3 percent of global bariatric procedures.3 It usually is performed on extremely obese patients, with a body mass index of greater than 40 (which is recommended by the U.S. National Institutes of Health), where the risk of performing a gastric bypass or duodenal switch is too high.
• Latin and South American countries reported more than 40,000 procedures in 2008.
Bariatric Surgery Statistics (2008)4
• Global bariatric surgery procedure rates: 344,221
• Global number of bariatric surgeons: 4,680
• Type of procedure:
– laparoscopic (91.4 percent)
– open surgery (8.6 percent)
The above data leads to a key question: Why has the absolute rate of bariatric surgery decreased over the past five years, when such a large patient population of obese and morbidly obese patients exists and grows? This metric is important to medical device companies if the overall effect of obesity continues to impact industry procedure rates.
In contrast, however, the results of the Fifth Annual HealthGrades Bariatric Surgery Trends in American Hospitals Study released in May showed that there has been a substantial increase in the total number of bariatric surgeries being performed annually in the United States (140,640 in 2004, up to 220,000 in 2008, according to the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery). The majority of procedures being performed are among patients with commercial insurance
but the largest increase was seen among patients in Medicare. The study suggested that the shift perhaps is due in part to the economic impact of obesity and obesity-related health issues. Obesity has been associated with more health care costs than any other condition with one study estimating that obesity contributes to 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures.5 The study also found a major shift away from traditional open bariatric procedures (which use a single large incision) to less-invasive laparoscopic procedures (which use three to six incisions each less than three-quarter inches in length).
References:
1 CS Healthcare Analyst Report Q409
2 NCHS, NHANES survey, 2004
3 www.bariatricsinseattle.com
4 International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders, (IFSO), plus Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden.
5 Finkelstein, EA, Fiebelkorn, IC, Wang, G. National medical spending attributable to overweight and obesity: How much, and who’s paying? Health Affairs 2003;W3;219–226.
Maria Shepherd has 20 years of leadership experience in medical device marketing, including as vice president of marketing for Oridion Medical, director of marketing for Philips Medical and Boston Scientific. Contact her at (617) 548-9892 or mshepherd@ddecisiongroup.com.
The global obesity pandemic impacts almost all industries within medical devices and the life sciences sectors. Some analysts are now calling this pandemic a specific driver to procedure rates.1 Bariatric surgery may mitigate the impact of this driver, making tracking of its influence an important metric.
Bariatric surgery, (better known as weight loss surgery), is performed on dangerously obese people to help them lose weight. The weight loss is achieved by reducing the size of the stomach with an implanted medical device (gastric banding), through removal of a portion of the stomach (sleeve gastrectomy or biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch), or by resecting and rerouting the small intestines to a small stomach pouch (gastric bypass surgery).
• While global obesity rates are surging, and the annual global increase in obese and morbidly obese individuals is ~1 percent,2 the absolute rate of bariatric surgery decreased during the past five years (135 percent increase), compared with the preceding five years (266 percent increase).
• There are diametrically opposed trends for Laparoscopic Adjusted Gastric Banding (AGB) and Laparoscopic Roux-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) in Europe compared with the United States and Canada.
• Sleeve gastrectomy is still performed in 5.3 percent of global bariatric procedures.3 It usually is performed on extremely obese patients, with a body mass index of greater than 40 (which is recommended by the U.S. National Institutes of Health), where the risk of performing a gastric bypass or duodenal switch is too high.
• Latin and South American countries reported more than 40,000 procedures in 2008.
• Global bariatric surgery procedure rates: 344,221
• Global number of bariatric surgeons: 4,680
• Type of procedure:
– laparoscopic (91.4 percent)
– open surgery (8.6 percent)
In contrast, however, the results of the Fifth Annual HealthGrades Bariatric Surgery Trends in American Hospitals Study released in May showed that there has been a substantial increase in the total number of bariatric surgeries being performed annually in the United States (140,640 in 2004, up to 220,000 in 2008, according to the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery). The majority of procedures being performed are among patients with commercial insurance
References:
1 CS Healthcare Analyst Report Q409
2 NCHS, NHANES survey, 2004
3 www.bariatricsinseattle.com
4 International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders, (IFSO), plus Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden.
5 Finkelstein, EA, Fiebelkorn, IC, Wang, G. National medical spending attributable to overweight and obesity: How much, and who’s paying? Health Affairs 2003;W3;219–226.
Maria Shepherd has 20 years of leadership experience in medical device marketing, including as vice president of marketing for Oridion Medical, director of marketing for Philips Medical and Boston Scientific. Contact her at (617) 548-9892 or mshepherd@ddecisiongroup.com.