—GSN staff, based on a press release

The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery declared bariatric and metabolic surgery to be “medically necessary and the best treatment for those with the life-threatening and life-limiting disease of severe obesity,” and called for the safe and rapid resumption of procedures, which have been largely postponed along with other operations deemed elective during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

In a new position statement titled “Safer Through Surgery,” published online in the journal SOARD, the ASMBS strongly rejected classifying metabolic and bariatric surgery as “elective” and prefers the use of the term “medically necessary time-sensitive surgery” or “medically necessary non-emergent surgery” to better characterize the effectiveness of the intervention and the progressive nature of the many diseases it treats, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.  

“COVID-19 may be a factor for quite some time and the longer the treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes and other related diseases [is] postponed, the greater the chance [the diseases] will become worse,” said Matthew M. Hutter, MD, MPH, the president of the ASMBS and a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “Each state, doctor and patient must make a decision as to when conditions for metabolic and bariatric surgery are right, but the sooner it can be safely performed, the more quickly obesity, type 2 diabetes and other diseases can be reduced or resolved.”   

The ASMBS recommends that the precise timing for surgery be carefully considered based on factors including an individual patient’s health status, local prevalence of COVID-19, and the availability of resources including hospital beds, ventilators and personal protective equipment. 

The society’s statement concludes: “Before COVID-19 began, it was clear that patients with obesity were ‘safer through surgery.’ In the era of COVID-19, ‘safer through surgery’ for patients with obesity may prove to be even more important than before.” Obesity has been identified as an independent risk factor for adverse outcomes, including death, in COVID-19 patients.