Surgeons, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, psychiatrists, nutritionists, and other health care professionals, as well as members of the public convened to address nonsurgical treatments for severe obesity, surgical treatments for severe obesity, and criteria for selection, the efficacy, and risks of surgical treatments for severe obesity, and the need for future research on and epidemiologic evaluation of these therapies. The National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Panel recommended that patients seeking therapy for severe obesity for the first time should be considered for treatment in a nonsurgical program that integrates a dietary regimen, appropriate exercise, behavior modification, and psychological support; that gastric restrictive or bypass procedures could be considered for well-informed and motivated patients in whom the operative risks were acceptable; that patients who are candidates for surgical procedures should be selected carefully after evaluation by a multidisciplinary team with medical, surgical, psychiatric, and nutritional expertise; that surgery be done by a surgeon who has substantial experience in the particular procedure and who works in a clinical setting with adequate support for all aspects of management and assessment; and that patients undergo lifelong medical surveillance after surgery.