Dendrite and IFSO publish 6th IFSO Global Registry Report

6th IFSO Global Registry ReportThe Sixth IFSO Global Registry Report (2021) has been published by Dendrite Clinical Systems, under the auspices of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO). The publication reports data from 50 countries on over 507,290 operations including baseline obesity-related disease, operation types, operative outcomes and disease status after bariatric surgery.

The report is the culmination of years of research and analyses from the IFSO Global Registry Project, which was established in January 2014 to demonstrate that it is possible to merge and analyse bariatric and metabolic surgical data from different countries and centres.

“We are proud to publish the Sixth iteration of the IFSO Global Registry Report,” said Dr Peter Walton, Managing Director of Dendrite Clinical Systems. “The global pandemic and cancellation of elective surgery in many parts of the world means collecting and analysing data has been particularly challenging. It is a testament to the professionalism of bariatric specialists that we are able to publish such a detailed report in such difficult circumstances.”

Data collection

Data collection for the Global IFSO Registry was facilitated via Dendrite’s two hybrid data entry portals for online electronic submission:

  • "On-line data entry" is an online database portal accessible over the Internet that enables surgeons/data managers to enter cases (with anonymised patient identifiers) using a simple on-line data form with just 4 pages of questions (typically takes just 3-4 minutes to complete per patient record).
  • "IFSO Upload-My-Data" web portal is a proven interface designed to enable a community of surgeons or physicians to create a national or international database; even if there are different database systems at the local level, the data from each can be integrated into the central, merged registry. The platform has been successfully utilised in a number of other national and international registries (for cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery) and has been specifically tailored for the IFSO project to enable both individual centres and national registries to submit data in batches on-line.

The focus of analysis for the current report is primary operations performed in the calendar years 2016-2020, which amounts to 255,620 operations. Throughout the report, the authors have sought to highlight data from national/regional registries that they believe capture at least 80% of the patients undergoing metabolic/bariatric surgery in their country. The report has detailed information on:

  • 128,382 Roux en Y gastric bypass operations (50.2% of all operation records submitted)
  • 94,315 sleeve gastrectomy procedures (36.9%)
  • 19,421 one anastomosis gastric bypass procedures (7.6%); and
  • 8,539 gastric banding procedures (3.3%)

“I would like to encourage countries that are establishing their bariatric and metabolic programs to set up a national registry and to encourage countries that have registries to aim to cover as many if not all of the procedures performed,” IFSO President, Dr Lilian Kow, states in the report. “By having as many national registries contributing towards the IFSO global registry, IFSO will in return provide the key aspects of quality assurance and global trends that will be essential to guide us in our mission to optimise the control of adiposity-based chronic diseases and to provide us with the tools in our mission to unify the global scientific, surgical and integrated health communities, for the purpose of dissemination of knowledge, collaboration and establishing universal standards of care for the treatment of individuals with adiposity-based chronic disease.”

The Global IFSO Registry Project was headed by Wendy Brown (Australia), Lillian Kow (Australia), Scott Shikora (USA), Ronald Liem (The Netherlands), Richard Welbourn (UK), John Dixon (Australia), and Peter Walton and Robin Kinsman (Dendrite Clinical Systems Ltd, UK).

To access the Sixth IFSO Global Registry Report, please click here

If you are interested in participating in the Seventh IFSO Global Registry Report, please email 
ifsoregistry@e-dendrite.com for more information