Bariatric Surgery in the Elderly: 2009-2013

Background: Ample evidence supports the safety and effectiveness of bariatric surgery in the general adult population but more information is needed in patients age 60 years and older (elderly). We previously examined the outcome of bariatric surgery performed in the elderly between 1999 and 2005 using the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Clinical Database. The aim of this study was to analyze contemporary outcomes of bariatric surgery in the elderly and to compare them to previous data from 1999-2005.

Methods: Using International Classification of Diseases, 9(th) Revision diagnosis and procedure codes, we obtained data from the UHC database for all elderly (age >60 yr) and adult nonelderly (age 19-60 yr) patients who underwent bariatric surgery for the treatment of morbid obesity between 2009 and 2013. Outcome measures, such as patient characteristics, LOS, morbidity, and observed-to-expected (risk-adjusted) mortality ratio were compared between elderly and nonelderly patients.

Results: Bariatric surgery in the elderly made up 2.7% of all bariatric operations in 1999-2005. This represents an increase to 10.1% of all bariatric operations in 2009-2013. In-hospital mortality was .30% for the nonelderly and .70% for the elderly in 1999-2005, whereas contemporary in-hospital mortality has decreased to .11% for the nonelderly and .05% for the elderly.

Conclusion: Our results show that the number of bariatric procedures performed in the elderly is increasing and now represents 10% of all bariatric operations performed at academic centers. In-hospital mortality in bariatric surgery in the elderly has improved so much that it is now even better than in-hospital mortality in the nonelderly in 1999-2005.