Bariatric surgery in Poland from 1993 to 2003.

Morbid obesity affects about 300, 000 patients in Poland. The number and type of bariatric procedures performed between 1993 and 2003 has been based on data collected from Polish surgeons active in this field. During the years 1993 - 2003, 1285 primary bariatric procedures were performed in total. Amongst these 79.1% were, commonly done as restrictive ones, including vertical banded gastroplasty-76.3%, laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding-17.7% and silastic ring vertical gastroplasty-5.5% and at last non-adjustable gastric band with 0.5%. Less popular are malabsorptive procedures - 20.9%, with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass - 79.1% and biliopancreatic diversion 20.9%. During last year 2003: malabsorptive procedures represented one third of all primary procedures and the laparoscopic approach was utilised in 18 % of operations. 61 revisions were reported. There are only three centres with experience in treating more than 100 patients (one of them treated over 600). Two centres have experience in carrying out bariatric surgery for longer than five years. During 1993 - 1997 216 operations were performed. Between 1998 - 2002: 724 procedures, and during last year 345. Patients were treated during last year in ten surgical departments. The number of morbidly obese patients treated surgically in Poland is increasing, but it is still inadequate to meet the growing demand.