Extra, Extra, Read All About It: The editors of Consumer Guide to Bariatric Surgery are gazing into the crystal ball once again to see what type of news coverage bariatric surgery will generate in the coming year.

Here are 10 bariatric surgery headlines we just may see in 2010:

Bariatric Surgery Numbers Still High for 2009
The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery is still crunching the numbers for 2009, but they are likely to be slightly higher than they were in 2008. There were 220,000 bariatric surgeries performed in 2008, compared with 205,000 in 2007. The leap from 2008 to 2009 won’t be quite as steep, due to the faltering economy.

Diabetes Epidemic Drives Increase in Bariatric Surgeries in 2010 and Beyond
A projected doubling of the number of Americans with diabetes is expected to spur a further uptick in the number of bariatric surgeries performed in 2010 and beyond. The latest study shows that as many as 44 million Americans will have diabetes by 2034. That’s up from 23 million today. The increase is due to the convergence of the aging of the population and the obesity epidemic. A growing body of evidence suggests that bariatric surgery can stop diabetes in its tracks.