Department of Surgery, York Hospital, York, PA 17405, USA. jmonk@wellspan.org

BACKGROUND: Clinically severe obesity (CSO) is a surgically treated disease.The Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP) has been used to treat patients with CSO and has resulted in an improvement in co-morbidities. We speculated that after a period of weight loss, patients would require less medication, resulting in cost-savings to both the patient and the insurance company, as well as an overall gain in health. METHOD: A retrospective study was performed which involved the first 100 patients who had undergone RYGBP at a community-teaching hospital. Analysis of the data was conducted by the Wilcoxon signed rank test. RESULTS: 64 patients met our inclusion criteria and had adequate follow-up data available. The average monthly medication expenditure was reduced from US dollars 317 (preoperatively, to US dollars 135 CONCLUSION: Weight loss after RYGBP leads to a significant reduction in medication expenses. These medication savings offset the costs of the initial procedure and represent permanent financial savings for the patient and society.