Obesity Surgeries Have Jumped Dramatically Since 1998

Obesity Surgeries Have Jumped Dramatically Since 1998: "Obesity surgeries for patients between the ages of 55 and 64 in the United States soared from 772 procedures in 1998 to 15,086 surgeries in 2004—a nearly 2,000 percent increase, according to a new report by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The report, the latest of several studies that AHRQ has done on obesity surgery, also found a 726 percent increase in surgeries among patients age 18 to 54. There were a total of 121,055 surgeries performed on patients of all ages in 2004."