According to a University of Michigan study, Hospitals that perform the most bariatric weight-loss procedures have less complication within the first month after surgery

The study, published in Journal of the American Medical Association reported on complications among 15,275 Michigan patients who had one of three types of bariatric operations at 25 hospitals performed by 62 surgeons in the state between June 2006 and September 2009.

Bariatric surgery is one of several types of operations that aim to help people lose weight by restricting food intake interfering with the digestive process.

According to principal author Nancy Birkmeyer, deaths were rare in the three most popular types of bariatric procedures, occurring in .03% of adjustable gastric band patients, none after sleeve gastrectomy and .14% for gastric bypass patients,

The registry, funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan provides financial incentives for hospitals participating in the registry as a way to improve outcomes after bariatric surgery, now one of the nation’s most common operations.

In response to concerns about safety of bariatric surgery and variability among institutions, the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery have implemented programs for accrediting hospitals as COE in bariatric surgery.

Limitations include that only 8 of the 25 hospitals were non-COE by the end of the study period; therefore, statistical power to detect differences between COE and non-COE hospital was less than optima.

Researchers say that these data may serve as useful safety performance benchmarks for hospitals performing bariatric surgery and the results reported in this study represent the outcomes of bariatric surgery that are possible, but not necessarily those that are typical in community settings.