Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence Demonstrate Exceptional Safety

Bariatric Surgery Centrers of Excellence Demonstrate Exceptional Safety
SRC Releases First Analysis from Largest National Bariatric Surgery Database

RALEIGH, NC (June 24, 2009) – Surgical Review Corporation (SRC), an independent, non-profit organization that advances the safety, efficacy and efficiency of bariatric and metabolic surgery, today announced results from the first analysis of data in its Bariatric Outcomes Longitudinal Database™ (BOLD™), the world’s largest dedicated repository of clinical bariatric surgery patient information. The study validates the safety of bariatric surgery performed by participants in the Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence® (BSCOE®) program and represents the first step toward identifying benchmarks for quality and establishing guidelines for best clinical practices.

“Our results confirm the extraordinarily low risk associated with bariatric surgery,” said Eric J. DeMaria, M.D., lead study author, Chairman of SRC’s Research Advisory Committee and Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery at Duke University Medical Centre. “When compared to national statistics, procedures performed by BSCOEs are significantly safer than common operations like hip replacement and gallbladder removal. BOLD provides the type and volume of data necessary to effectively support these claims, which in turn underscores the value of the BSCOE program.”

Dr. DeMaria presented the study at the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) 26th Annual Meeting in Grapevine, Texas. Results were based on clinical data from 57,918 research-consented patients, representing the largest bariatric surgery patient population ever analyzed:

• Procedure: The most common bariatric procedure was gastric bypass (54.8%), followed by gastric banding (39.8%), sleeve gastrectomy (2.3%) and biliopancreatic diversion (0.9%).
• Complications: Overall, 10.77% of patients experienced one or more adverse events following surgery. Most complications were considered relatively minor; nausea/vomiting was the most frequently reported adverse event post-discharge.
• Mortality: The total mortality rate across all procedures was 0.135%, approximately one death per 1,000 patients. Rates for 90- and 30-day all-cause mortality were 0.112% and 0.089%, respectively.
• Age: A majority of patients were between ages 19-65 (94.08%), while a minority were younger than 19 (0.14%) or older than 65 (5.67%).
• Gender: Females comprised a significant majority of the study population (78.76%).
• Race: 78.12% of patients were identified as Caucasian, 10.52% African-American, 6.02% Hispanic, 0.2% Asian and 0.46% Native American.

“Our centres of excellence are truly living up to their designation,” said Deborah A. Winegar, Ph.D., Director of Research at SRC and a study co-author. “Through BOLD, the safety of bariatric surgical procedures performed by BSCOEs can now be substantiated with a meaningful, high quality data source.”

BOLD currently contains information on more than 130,000 bariatric surgery patients. For this study, SRC analyzed prospective data entered into BOLD between its launch in June 2007 and May 2009 by participants in the ASMBS BSCOE program. Participants are required to enter information into BOLD for all phases of bariatric surgical care, including procedures, medications, demographic characteristics, weight loss and maintenance, complications, and co-morbidities. To ensure data quality, SRC continuously verifies information entered into BOLD through automated data checks and chart reviews conducted during site inspections.

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