Two new studies have uncovered major long term benefits linked to a common obesity treatment.
20:00, 16 May 2026
Weight loss surgery could not only save patients’ lives but also cut thousands of pounds from treatment costs compared with newly-popular GLP 1 drugs, according to two new studies. The separate, real world studies were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
Both focused on metabolic and bariatric surgery, with researchers finding the procedures were linked to lower long term healthcare costs for patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes while also dramatically reducing the risk of kidney failure, dialysis, heart attacks and death among chronic kidney disease patients.
In one study, researchers from Mayo Clinic and Baylor College of Medicine analysed data from nearly 91,000 patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes treated between 2017 and 2023.
The study compared patients receiving GLP-1 medications with those undergoing sleeve gastrectomy or gastric bypass surgery and, in a discovery that may seem surprising, found the operations were significantly cheaper after two years despite their higher upfront cost.
Patients treated with GLP-1 drugs accumulated average costs of around $58,600 (£43,000), compared with $41,400 (£30,000) for sleeve gastrectomy and $51,300 (£38,000) for gastric bypass surgery.
Researchers said the figures reflected not just the cost of treatment itself but also expenses linked to obesity related illnesses and complications that remained unresolved over time.
Michael A. Edwards, bariatric surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and lead author of the study, said: “As GLP 1 use becomes more widespread, understanding their long term financial impact compared with metabolic and bariatric surgery is increasingly important.
“The assumption that drugs are more cost effective because of their lower upfront costs doesn’t hold up when extended over time, and especially when durability, adherence, and payer structure are considered.”
The second study examined how the same surgeries affected patients with obesity and chronic kidney disease.
Researchers analysed more than 8,900 patients using data from the TriNetX Research Network electronic health record database between 2010 and 2020, comparing patients who underwent sleeve gastrectomy or Roux en Y gastric bypass with similar patients who did not have surgery.
Over five years, surgery patients saw major improvements across multiple health outcomes. The risk of progressing to end stage kidney disease fell from 11.9 per cent to 5.9 per cent, while the need for dialysis dropped from 9 per cent to 4.1 per cent.
Patients who underwent surgery were also more than twice as likely to receive a kidney transplant, with rates of 4.6 per cent compared with 2.2 per cent.
Researchers also recorded significant reductions in cardiovascular complications and deaths, with heart attack and stroke risk dropping from 27.7 per cent to 15.5 per cent, while mortality rates fell sharply from 16 per cent to 5 per cent.
The second study was led by Jerry Dang, MD, PhD, FRCSC, FACS, FASMBS, Associate Professor of Surgery at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.
Dang said: “These findings show metabolic and bariatric surgery doesn’t just treat obesity, it fundamentally alters the course of chronic kidney disease and should be considered earlier in the disease process. With earlier intervention, we see slower disease progression, fewer patients advancing to kidney failure, better cardiovascular outcomes and greater access to life saving transplants.”
Richard M. Peterson, MD, MPH, FASMBS, President of the ASMBS, who was not involved in either study, said the findings reinforced growing evidence that bariatric surgery can reshape long term health outcomes for obesity patients.
“Obesity is a chronic disease and treatment decisions must consider long term outcomes, affordability and sustainability,” he said. “In this particular study, the more durable and clinically effective treatment, metabolic and bariatric surgery, is also the more affordable one.”
He added: “These procedures are not simply about weight loss, they’re about changing the trajectory of chronic disease, preserving organ function and saving lives.”
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