Treatment and management of obesity: is surgical intervention the answer?

Obesity is rapidly becoming a major health concern and could be considered equal to smoking as a preventable cause of premature death. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE 2006) estimated that 1.1 billion people are overweight, a number rivalling those who are underweight globally. Recent statistics for England from the National Health Service (NHS 2011) report that in 2009/10 there were 7,214 bariatric surgical procedures performed on people of varying ages.