LONDON • The number of weight-loss surgeries in England jumped more than tenfold from 2000 to 2007, a new study says.

Dr. Omar Faiz, a consultant surgeon at St. Mary's Hospital in London, and colleagues monitored the number of weight-loss surgeries done in government hospitals from 2000 to 2008. Overall, they found 6,953 such operations were performed, including three different types of surgeries, all designed to shrink the size of the patient's stomach.

In 2000, there were 238 weight loss surgeries, but by 2007 there were 2,543 such operations. The study was paid for by Britain's National Institute of Health Research.

Faiz and colleagues found that the majority of patients who got the weight loss surgeries were women and were from poorer areas. Most patients were in their 40s. The risk of dying a year after the surgery was about 1 percent.