According to data from the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, about 220,000 people had weight loss surgery, including gastric bypass, in 2009.

Courcoulas said for some patients, such as those who’ve had previous colon and bowel surgeries, open weight loss procedures may be the only option. But that’s the exception rather than the rule.

“I think that in most large centers, patients are being offered a laparoscopic procedure exclusively,” she told Reuters Health.

“For patients considering weight loss surgery, especially gastric bypass, they should have a very thorough conversation with their surgeon about the planned approach, and a laparoscopic approach should be the preferred approach if possible,” Courcoulas concluded.

“The consensus is now overwhelming to suggest a laparoscopic approach first,” Morton, the study’s senior author, told Reuters Health. He said close to 90 percent of gastric bypass surgery patients are now having their procedures done laparoscopically.

“Pretty much across the board (it has) better outcomes for patients,” he added.

In another analysis published in the same journal issue, researchers found six studies of close to 16,000 people having their appendix removed suggested those laparoscopic procedures also came with fewer complications and deaths and shorter hospital stays than open surgeries.

However, Eleanor Southgate of Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, Surrey, and her colleagues said there was a lack of information on pain, patient satisfaction and cost of each type of procedure in those studies.

SOURCES: Archives of Surgery, online June 18, 2012.