Lower complications for Gastric Bypass at top hospitals.

Gastric Bypass surgery for Obsese patients at highly rated hospitals have, on average, a 65 percent lower chance of experiencing serious complications compared to obesity patients who have surgery at poorly rated hospitals. This according to a study released by HealthGrades, USA leading independent healthcare ratings organization.

It was also found that the complication rate for these surgeries continues to rise, increasing six percent from 2004 to 2006. One possible reason: lower volume facilities have higher complication rates.

Bariatric surgery is a general term describing several types of weight loss procedures. The study analyzed the outcomes of the most common, including traditional open surgical gastric bypass procedures as well as newer, less invasive procedures such as "lap-banding" and laparoscopic gastric bypass.

Complications associated with open gastric bypass surgery accounted for the highest rise in complications, increasing 17 percent. Comparatively, complications from less invasive laparoscopic surgery increased by just more than one percent.

A typical patient having a bariatric surgical procedure at a five-star rated hospital in one of the 17 states studied has on average, a 65 percent lower chance of experiencing one or more inhospital complications than at a one-star rated hospital and a 41 percent lower chance than at a three-star rated hospital during 2004- 2006.

Five-star (top rated) hospitals performed almost twice the volume of procedures compared to 1-star and 3-star facilities–an average of 526 procedures from 2004 through 2006 compared with 266 and 283 respectively.

Higher volume was associated with fewer risk-adjusted complications. Facilities with an annual case volume of 125 procedures had the lowest risk-adjusted complications. Facilities performing less than 25 cases per year had the highest rate of risk-adjusted complications.

If all patients had received their bariatric surgery procedure at 5-star hospitals (from 2004 through 2006), 5,125 inhospital complications could have been potentially avoided in the 17 states studied.