UK research has found that being male or having obesity reduces chance of survival from COVID-19.

In a recent study, ‘Banding the Pouch with a Non-adjustable Ring as Revisional Procedure in Patients with Insufficient Results After Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass: Short-term Outcomes of a Multicenter Cohort Study’, published in Obesity Surgery, researchers from The Netherlands reported the outcomes from the first multi-centre revisional banded bypass procedure in a relatively high number of patients.

The FDA has provided an update on the potential risks of over-inflation (spontaneous hyperinflation - the spontaneous filling of intragastric balloons with additional air or liquid while inside a patient’s stomach, typically resulting in the need for early device removal), acute pancreatitis and deaths in patients with Orbera and ReShape liquid-filled intragastric balloons used for weight loss in adult patients with obesity.

On Thursday, 30th April 2020, from 18:00 – 20:00 (Central European Time), BARIAlink will host the 35th BARIAlink Academy Virtual Classroom, with the aim of improving the knowledge and skills of bariatric and metabolic specialists to deal with complex cases. This latest online virtual classroom will consist of a series of presentations, discussions and polls, and will feature a special topic on ‘Visceral obesity: impact on COVID-19 pneumonia’, by Prof Dr Jan Mulier (AZ Sint Jan Brugge, Belgium).

In April 2019, Drs Michel Gagner (Hopital du Sacré Coeur, Montréal, the Westmount Square Surgical Center, Westmount, QC, Canada and the Herbert Wertheim School of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, USA) and Paul Kemmeter (Mercy Health Saint Mary’s, Grand Rapids, MI, USA) published a systematic review comparing staple-line leak rates in five reinforcement options following laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) in the journal Surgical Endoscopy¹.