A Call for More Research from the Arabian Gulf

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity has become an epidemic in the Arabian Gulf, with the prevalence of obesity according to the latest report from the World Health Organization (WHO) showing the gulf region to be countries with the highest incidence of obesity in the 30% plus group. This study aims to examine publications on bariatric surgery and compare them with the other countries with a high incidence of obesity in the world.

Methods: A literature review on bariatric surgery published from the earliest detected year of publication up until March 2016 using SCOPUS, PubMed, Ovid, and Google Scholar was conducted. Individual papers were assessed for types of surgery, preoperative measures, names of journals, authors, and outcomes. The data was analyzed using Endnote library and SPSS. Key words used in the search included "Bariatric Surgery," "Arabian Gulf," "Kuwait," "Qatar," "Saudi Arabia," "United Arab Emirates," "Oman," "USA," "Australia," "weight loss surgery," "sleeve gastrectomy," "gastric bypass," "gastric band," "mini-gastric bypass," "biliropancreatic diversion," "duodenal switch," and "intragastric balloon." Original papers, systematic reviews and case reports were included.

Results: From our review, the gastric sleeve proved to be the most popular published on procedure in the Arabian Gulf, whereas the USA had the highest percentage of gastric bypass surgeries and Australia had equivalent numbers when it came to gastric bypass and band. The numbers of studies from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman were 70, 44, 20, 7, 6, and 0, respectively. The mean impact factor of the published articles was 2.53 +/- 1.76 SD. Most of the publications were published in Obesity Surgery (29%), Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases (5%), and Surgical Endoscopy (5%).

Conclusion: The Arabian Gulf has both the highest percentage of bariatric procedures performed as well as the highest prevalence of obesity. However, they have the lowest number of publications and research when compared to their western counterparts; therefore, more research and publications are needed in the Arabian Gulf region, as well as the possibility of producing a regional registry to be able to have a good overview of bariatric surgery in the region.

Keywords: Arabian gulf; Bariatric surgery; Bariatric surgery publications; Collaboration; Gastric band; Gastric bypass; Intragastric balloon; Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy; Obesity; Procedures; Review.