Pathological obesity is an ever-increasing social problem in many countries. In Poland the number of persons meeting the criteria qualifying for bariatric surgery is well over 500 000. The number of performed operations is low, amounting to just over 1.5 thousand. It has specific health consequences for the whole society. The number of patients who have type 2 diabetes, hypertension, lipid disorders or locomotor system diseases is steadily growing. Treatment of type 2 diabetes and complications thereof alone cost approx. 8% of NFZ budget. More importantly, pathologically obese patients a lot more often fall victim to cancer. Thus, social costs of treatment of obese patients are huge and in fact difficult to estimate.