At an annual conference, data comparing international trends for weight loss surgery revealed that the three most popular operations were gastric bypass, sleeve and band. However, gastric band procedures were decreasing in popularity in favour of sleeve gastrectomy procedures over 3 years (2008-2011). Bypass procedures remained popular and represented almost half of all procedures being performed.

It is difficult to interpret this data, as the data includes a mixture of private and funded operations across multiple international healthcare systems with different financial and outcome drivers for the choice of procedure. However, the trend is interesting, and may be underpinned by the general rise in average BMI internationally.