International expert consensus on the current status and future prospects of artificial intelligence in metabolic and bariatric surgery

Mohammad Kermansaravi¹, Sonja Chiappetta², Shahab Shahabi Shahmiri³, Julian Varas⁴, Chetan Parmar⁵, Yung Lee⁶, Jerry T Dang⁷, Asim Shabbir⁸, Daniel Hashimoto⁹, Amir Hossein Davarpanah Jazi¹⁰, Ozanan R Meireles¹¹, Edo Aarts¹², Hazem Almomani¹³, Aayad Alqahtani¹⁴, Ali Aminian¹⁵, Estuardo Behrens¹⁶, Dieter Birk¹⁷, Felipe J Cantu¹⁸, Ricardo V Cohen¹⁹, Maurizio De Luca²⁰, Nicola Di Lorenzo²¹, Bruno Dillemans²², Mohamad Hayssam ElFawal²³, Daniel Moritz Felsenreich²⁴, Michel Gagner²⁵, Hector Gabriel Galvan²⁶, Carlos Galvani²⁷, Khaled Gawdat²⁸, Omar M Ghanem²⁹, Ashraf Haddad³⁰, Jaques Himpens³¹, Kazunori Kasama³², Radwan Kassir³³, Mousa Khoursheed³⁴, Haris Khwaja³⁵, Lilian Kow³⁶, Panagiotis Lainas³⁷, Muffazal Lakdawala³⁸, Rafael Luengas Tello³⁹, Kamal Mahawar⁴⁰, Caetano Marchesini⁴¹, Mario A Masrur⁴², Claudia Meza⁴³, Mario Musella⁴⁴, Abdelrahman Nimeri⁴⁵, Patrick Noel⁴⁶, Mariano Palermo⁴⁷, Abdolreza Pazouki¹⁰, Jaime Ponce⁴⁸, Gerhard Prager²⁴, César David Quiróz-Guadarrama⁴⁹, Karl P Rheinwalt⁵⁰, Jose G Rodriguez⁵¹, Alan A Saber⁵², Paulina Salminen⁵³, Scott A Shikora⁴⁵, Erik Stenberg⁵⁴, Christine K Stier⁵⁵, Michel Suter⁵⁶, Samuel Szomstein⁵⁷, Halit Eren Taskin⁵⁸, Ramon Vilallonga⁵⁹, Ala Wafa⁶⁰, Wah Yang⁶¹, Ricardo Zorron⁶², Antonio Torres⁶³, Matthew Kroh⁷, Natan Zundel⁶⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery Research Center, Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery, Hazrat-E Fatemeh Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. mkermansaravi@yahoo.com.
² Ospedale Evangelico Betania, Naples, Italy.
³ Department of Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery Research Center, Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery, Hazrat-E Fatemeh Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. shshahabi@gmail.com.
⁴ Center for Simulation and Experimental Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Uc-Christus Health Network, Santiago, Chile.
⁵ Whittington Hospital, London, UK.
⁶ Division of General Surgery, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
⁷ Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
⁸ National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
⁹ Penn Computer Assisted Surgery and Outcomes Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery Research Center, Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery, Hazrat-E Fatemeh Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
¹¹ Surgical Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, 15 Parkman Street, WAC339, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
¹² Weight Works Clinics and Allurion Clinics, Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
¹³ NMC Royal Hospital, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
¹⁴ New You Medical Center, King Saud University, Obesity Chair, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁵ Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
¹⁶ New Life Center, Guatemala, Guatemala.
¹⁷ Department of General Surgery, Klinikum Bietigheim-Ludwigsburg, Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany.
¹⁸ Universidad México Americana del Norte UMAN, Reynosa, Tamps., Mexico.
¹⁹ Center for the Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes, Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, Sao Paolo, Brazil.
²⁰ Department of General Surgery, Rovigo Hospital, Rovigo, Italy.
²¹ Department of Surgery, Sapienza University, Roma, Italy.
²² Department of General Surgery, Sint Jan Brugge-Oostende, Brugge, AZ, Belgium.
²³ Makassed General Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon.
²⁴ Department of Surgery, Vienna Medical University, Vienna, Austria.
²⁵ Department of Surgery, Westmount Square Surgical Center, Westmount, QC, Canada.
²⁶ Innovare Bariatria, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, Tepic, Mexico.
²⁷ Department of Surgery, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, USA.
²⁸ Bariatric Surgery Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
²⁹ Division of Metabolic & Abdominal Wall Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
³⁰ Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery, Gastrointestinal Bariatric and Metabolic Center (GBMC)-Jordan Hospital, Amman, Jordan.
³¹ Bariatric Surgery Unit, Delta Chirec Hospital, Brussels, Belgium.
³² Weight Loss and Metabolic Surgery Center, Yotsuya Medical Cube, Tokyo, Japan.
³³ Digestive and Bariatric Surgery Department, The View Hospital, Doha, Qatar.
³⁴ Taiba Hospital, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
³⁵ Department of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, UK.
³⁶ Adelaide Bariatric Centre, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
³⁷ Department of Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, Metropolitan Hospital, Athens, Greece.
³⁸ Department of General Surgery and Minimal Access Surgical Sciences, Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, Mumbai, India.
³⁹ Departamento de Cirugía, Hospital Clínico Universidad de Chile, Santos Dumont 999, Santiago, Chile.
⁴⁰ South Tyneside and Sunderland Foundation NHS Trust, Sunderland, UK.
⁴¹ São Marcelino Champagnat Hospital, Curitiba, Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
⁴² University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁴³ Clínica RedSalud CL, RedSalud, Chile.
⁴⁴ Advanced Biomedical Sciences Department, Federico II" University, Naples, Italy.
⁴⁵ Department of Surgery, Center for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴⁶ Hospital Privé Bouchard, ELSAN, Marseille, 13006, France.
⁴⁷ Department of Surgery, Centro CIEN-Diagnomed, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
⁴⁸ Bariatric Surgery Program, CHI Memorial Hospital, Chattanooga, TN, USA.
⁴⁹ New City Hospital, Tijuana, México.
⁵⁰ Department of Bariatric, Metabolic and Plastic Surgery, Cellitinnen Hospital St. Franziskus, Cologne, Germany.
⁵¹ Ángeles Ciudad Juárez Hospital, Tijuana, Mexico.
⁵² Metabolic and Bariatric Institute, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, New Jersy, USA.
⁵³ Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁵⁴ Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden.
⁵⁵ Department of Surgery, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Universitätsmedizin Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
⁵⁶ Department of Surgery, Hôpital Riviera-Chablais, Rennaz, Switzerland.
⁵⁷ Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, Department of Minimally Invasive Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL, USA.
⁵⁸ Department of Surgery, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey.
⁵⁹ Endocrine, Bariatric, and Metabolic Surgery Department, University Hospital Vall Hebron, Barcelona, Spain.
⁶⁰ Aljazeera International Hospital, Misurata University School of Medicine, Misurata, Libya.
⁶¹ Department of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
⁶² Center for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Hospital CUF Descobertas, Lisbon, Portugal.
⁶³ General and Digestive Surgery Service, Department of Surgery, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Complutense University Medical School, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Madrid, Spain.
⁶⁴ Department of Surgery, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14203, USA.

PMID: 40102585
PMCID: PMC11920084
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-94335-0

International expert consensus on the current status and future prospects of artificial intelligence in metabolic and bariatric surgery

Mohammad Kermansaravi et al. Sci Rep. 2025.

. 2025 Mar 18;15(1):9312.

doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-94335-0.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery Research Center, Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery, Hazrat-E Fatemeh Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. mkermansaravi@yahoo.com.
² Ospedale Evangelico Betania, Naples, Italy.
³ Department of Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery Research Center, Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery, Hazrat-E Fatemeh Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. shshahabi@gmail.com.
⁴ Center for Simulation and Experimental Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Uc-Christus Health Network, Santiago, Chile.
⁵ Whittington Hospital, London, UK.
⁶ Division of General Surgery, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
⁷ Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
⁸ National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
⁹ Penn Computer Assisted Surgery and Outcomes Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery Research Center, Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery, Hazrat-E Fatemeh Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
¹¹ Surgical Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, 15 Parkman Street, WAC339, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
¹² Weight Works Clinics and Allurion Clinics, Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
¹³ NMC Royal Hospital, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
¹⁴ New You Medical Center, King Saud University, Obesity Chair, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁵ Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
¹⁶ New Life Center, Guatemala, Guatemala.
¹⁷ Department of General Surgery, Klinikum Bietigheim-Ludwigsburg, Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany.
¹⁸ Universidad México Americana del Norte UMAN, Reynosa, Tamps., Mexico.
¹⁹ Center for the Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes, Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, Sao Paolo, Brazil.
²⁰ Department of General Surgery, Rovigo Hospital, Rovigo, Italy.
²¹ Department of Surgery, Sapienza University, Roma, Italy.
²² Department of General Surgery, Sint Jan Brugge-Oostende, Brugge, AZ, Belgium.
²³ Makassed General Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon.
²⁴ Department of Surgery, Vienna Medical University, Vienna, Austria.
²⁵ Department of Surgery, Westmount Square Surgical Center, Westmount, QC, Canada.
²⁶ Innovare Bariatria, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, Tepic, Mexico.
²⁷ Department of Surgery, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, USA.
²⁸ Bariatric Surgery Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
²⁹ Division of Metabolic & Abdominal Wall Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
³⁰ Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery, Gastrointestinal Bariatric and Metabolic Center (GBMC)-Jordan Hospital, Amman, Jordan.
³¹ Bariatric Surgery Unit, Delta Chirec Hospital, Brussels, Belgium.
³² Weight Loss and Metabolic Surgery Center, Yotsuya Medical Cube, Tokyo, Japan.
³³ Digestive and Bariatric Surgery Department, The View Hospital, Doha, Qatar.
³⁴ Taiba Hospital, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
³⁵ Department of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, UK.
³⁶ Adelaide Bariatric Centre, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
³⁷ Department of Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, Metropolitan Hospital, Athens, Greece.
³⁸ Department of General Surgery and Minimal Access Surgical Sciences, Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, Mumbai, India.
³⁹ Departamento de Cirugía, Hospital Clínico Universidad de Chile, Santos Dumont 999, Santiago, Chile.
⁴⁰ South Tyneside and Sunderland Foundation NHS Trust, Sunderland, UK.
⁴¹ São Marcelino Champagnat Hospital, Curitiba, Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
⁴² University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁴³ Clínica RedSalud CL, RedSalud, Chile.
⁴⁴ Advanced Biomedical Sciences Department, Federico II" University, Naples, Italy.
⁴⁵ Department of Surgery, Center for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴⁶ Hospital Privé Bouchard, ELSAN, Marseille, 13006, France.
⁴⁷ Department of Surgery, Centro CIEN-Diagnomed, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
⁴⁸ Bariatric Surgery Program, CHI Memorial Hospital, Chattanooga, TN, USA.
⁴⁹ New City Hospital, Tijuana, México.
⁵⁰ Department of Bariatric, Metabolic and Plastic Surgery, Cellitinnen Hospital St. Franziskus, Cologne, Germany.
⁵¹ Ángeles Ciudad Juárez Hospital, Tijuana, Mexico.
⁵² Metabolic and Bariatric Institute, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, New Jersy, USA.
⁵³ Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁵⁴ Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden.
⁵⁵ Department of Surgery, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Universitätsmedizin Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
⁵⁶ Department of Surgery, Hôpital Riviera-Chablais, Rennaz, Switzerland.
⁵⁷ Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, Department of Minimally Invasive Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL, USA.
⁵⁸ Department of Surgery, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey.
⁵⁹ Endocrine, Bariatric, and Metabolic Surgery Department, University Hospital Vall Hebron, Barcelona, Spain.
⁶⁰ Aljazeera International Hospital, Misurata University School of Medicine, Misurata, Libya.
⁶¹ Department of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
⁶² Center for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Hospital CUF Descobertas, Lisbon, Portugal.
⁶³ General and Digestive Surgery Service, Department of Surgery, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Complutense University Medical School, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Madrid, Spain.
⁶⁴ Department of Surgery, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14203, USA.

PMID: 40102585
PMCID: PMC11920084
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-94335-0

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the landscape of medicine, including surgical science and practice. The evolution of AI from rule-based systems to advanced machine learning and deep learning algorithms has opened new avenues for its application in metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS). AI has the potential to enhance various aspects of MBS, including education and training, decision-making, procedure planning, cost and time efficiency, optimization of surgical techniques, outcome and complication prediction, patient education, and access to care. However, concerns persist regarding the reliability of AI-generated decisions and associated ethical considerations. This study aims to establish a consensus on the role of AI in MBS using a modified Delphi method. A panel of 68 leading metabolic and bariatric surgeons from 35 countries participated in this consensus-building process, providing expert insights into the integration of AI in MBS. Of the 28 statements evaluated, a consensus of at least 70% was achieved for all, with 25 statements reaching consensus in the first round and the remaining three in the second round. Experts agreed that AI has the potential to enhance the evaluation of surgical skills in MBS by providing objective, detailed assessments, enabling personalized feedback, and accelerating the learning curve. Most experts also recognized AI's role in identifying qualified candidates for MBS referrals, helping patient and procedure selection, and addressing specific clinical questions. However, concerns were raised about the potential overreliance on AI-generated recommendations. The consensus emphasized the need for ethical guidelines governing AI use and the inclusion of AI's role in decision-making within the patient consent process. Furthermore, the results suggest that AI education should become an essential component of future surgical training. Advancements in AI-driven robotics and AI-integrated genomic applications were also identified as promising developments that could significantly shape the future of MBS.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Bariatric surgery; Machine learning; Metabolic surgery; Simulation training; Virtual reality.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

References

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International expert consensus on the current status and future prospects of artificial intelligence in metabolic and bariatric surgery

Affiliations

International expert consensus on the current status and future prospects of artificial intelligence in metabolic and bariatric surgery

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical