BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Obesity presents one of the most challenging public health issues for Americans today. When diet and exercise fail, increasingly, those who struggle with obesity are turning to bariatric or weight loss,surgery.

As with any surgery, these procedures can be both expensive and potentially dangerous.

In a report from Health Grades, Inc., researchers who looked at the cost and safety of weight-control surgery across the nation found that costs varied widely from state to state. For example, the average bariatric surgery in California cost more than $35,000 more than the same procedure in Maryland.

The most important factor in predicting safety and affordability was how many surgeries the facility performed in a year.

At hospitals with a high volume of bariatric surgeries, patients had fewer complications, spent less time in the hospital, and paid less for their procedures while patients who went to a low-volume hospital were 67 percent more likely to have medical complications after the operation.