The Hill
Increased use of GLP-1 drugs to treat obesity appears to be significantly reducing the number of surgeries that were once the primary option for dramatic weight loss.
A new study published in JAMA Surgery examined trends in the use of metabolic and bariatric surgery in the U.S. between 2022 and 2024. As use of GLP-1 drugs increased by 140.4 percent during that period, bariatric surgery rates fell by 34 percent, researchers found after analyzing data from 11.7 million patients diagnosed with obesity or diabetes.
The findings align with a separate recent study from Loyola University Chicago, which found the number of metabolic and bariatric surgeries in the U.S. dropped below 200,000 in 2024 for the first time since 2020.
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