Background

All fields of medicine were affected by the COVID pandemic including metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS). Across the nation there was a moratorium on elective surgical cases that started in the second quarter of 2020 and continued on and off for the rest of the year. The negatively affected the health of bariatric patients who had their surgeries delayed. Our aim was to determine the decrease in the volume of MBS cases from 2019 to 2020.

Methods

The Texas Inpatient and Outpatient Public Use Data File for the years 2019 and 2020 were evaluated. We searched for the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes and International Classification of Diseases version 10 (ICD10) procedure codes for common bariatric operations in both databases. Descriptive statistics were applied and the data was separated by quarter.

Results

There were 21,043 MBS cases performed in Texas in 2020. There was an 11% decrease in MBS in Texas from the year 2019 to 2020. The decrease was most noticeable in the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2020 with a subsequent rebound. There were 2,511 less cases in 2020. Sleeve gastrectomies remained the dominant procedure and the percentage of outpatient sleeves increased from 30% to 37%

Conclusions

The COVID pandemic caused a 11% decrease in MBS in the year 2020 from the previous year. There was a shift toward performing more outpatient cases. There was a rebound in the second half of the year, with more cases being performed than in the previous 3rd and 4th quarter.