[Bariatric surgery in Denmark--are we on the right way?]

In 2005 the National Board of Health (NBH) published guidelines on bariatric surgery in Denmark. The aim of the present study was to shed light on the national bariatric effort in relation to these guidelines.

The analysis is based on extraction of the following data from the National Patient Registry in the period from 2005 through 2007: annual number of operations, type of operation, laparoscopic versus open procedure. Furthermore, the centres were compared.

A total of 2,098 bariatric procedures were performed in the years 2005 to 2007. Apart from a single operation, all operations were performed at departments selected by the NBH. During the period an increase of approximately 400% in the number of operations was observed, and the rise was largest at the private clinics, which performed approx. 60% of the operations in 2007. Not all public departments fulfilled the recommendation from the NBH of a minimum of 100 annual operations. The proportion of banding procedures performed at private clinics was significantly lower than the proportion performed at public hospitals. Significantly more open operations were performed at private clinics, a tendency which was attributable to the activities of one of the private clinics.

The frequency with which bariatric surgery is performed follows a strongly increasing trend and the procedures are only performed at the public departments selected by the National Board of Health and at the private centres that have entered into an agreement with Danish Regions. Since the operative access and selection of procedures varies between departments we conclude that research should be a firm requirement for all centres, and that research efforts should comprise cooperation concerning the database recommended by the NBH.