by Sherif Hakky, MBBS, MSc, MRCS;
Matthew Thompson, MBBS, BSc; and
Ahmed R. Ahmed, MBBS, BSc(Hons), FRCS

Department of Bariatric Surgery, Imperial College Healthcare, Charing Cross Hospital,  London, United Kingdom

INTRODUCTION
Bariatric surgery in the United Kingdom (UK) has grown and adapted over recent years to meet the new demands imposed by an ever-increasing rise in clinical obesity. This process has been promulgated through growing evidence of the clinical benefits of surgery as well as advantageous health economics favoring surgery. The lack of successful lifestyle and pharmaceutical therapies to treat obesity along with the financial burden imposed on a free access healthcare system (the National Health Service—NHS) through obesity-related disease have further perpetuated these changes.
There are many success stories and a mounting evidence base that make bariatric surgery an exciting field in the UK at present.
There exists the potential to cure diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and sleep apnea while also dramatically reducing the risk of a large number of other diseases including some cancers thus providing an overall survival benefit.[1–3] This is something no other speciality can boast.

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by Tetsuya Nakazato, MSW;
Kazunori Kasama, MD;
Takashi Oshiro, MD; Eri Kikkawa, RD;
and Kazuko Sonoda, RN Read the rest of this article »

by Yigal Leykin, MD, MSc; Tommaso Pellis, MD; Filipo Sanfilippo, MD; Luca Busetto, MD; Marco Anselmino, MD; Claudio di Salvo, MD; Francesca Fortran, MD; and Francesco Giunta, MD

Drs. Leykin, Pellis, and Sanfilippo are from the Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Santa Maria degli Angeli Hospital, Pordenone, Italy; Dr. Busetto is from the Department of Medicine and Surgical Sciences, University of Padova, Italy; Drs. di Salvo and Foltran are from the Bariatric Surgery Unit, Azienda Ospedaliera Pisana, Pisa, Italy; and Dr. Giunta is from the Division of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Department of Surgery, University of Pisa, Italy.

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by Steven R. Hendrick, MD, FACS; Julie M. Janeway, BBA, MSA, JD; and Karen Sparks, BBA, MBEd

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