The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) continues to provide recommendations and information regarding surgical response to the COVID19 crisis, which are intended to provide surgeons with additional information to help manage surgical patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are not formal guidelines and, due to time constraints, SAGES has not reviewed them by utilising its standard rigorous guidelines process.

Obesity increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by at least six times, regardless of genetic predisposition to the disease, according to research, ‘Obesity, unfavourable lifestyle and genetic risk of type 2 diabetes: a case-cohort study’, published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, EASD).

Individuals with diabetes are at increased risk for bacterial, parasitic and viral infections, according to a study, ‘Coronavirus infections and type 2 diabetes-shared pathways with therapeutic implications’, published Endocrine Reviews, and demonstrates how intersections of the coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and type 2 diabetes may require new approaches in treatment for hospitalised patients.

The International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) has issued recommendations to its global healthcare providers aimed at keeping all metabolic and bariatric surgery patients and practice staff in a safe as environment as possible.

Younger people with obesity are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms, according to two studies published in the journals Clinical Infectious Diseases and medRxiv, which highlight that inflammation throughout the body associated with obesity could be a powerful factor in the severity of COVID-19 and could be even more significant than heart or lung disease.