Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) accounts for almost 40% of perioperative deaths after bariatric surgery. Placement of prophylactic inferior vena cava (IVC) filter before bariatric surgery to improve outcomes has shown varied results. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate postoperative outcomes associated with the preoperative placement of IVC filters in these patients. Methods: A systematic review was conducted by three investigators independently in PubMed, EMBASE, the Web of Science and Scopus until February 28, 2013. Our search was restricted to studies in adult patients undergoing bariatric surgery with and without IVC filters. Primary outcomes were postoperative deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), and postoperative mortality. Meta-analysis used random effects models to account for heterogeneity, and Sidik-Jonkman method to account for scarcity of outcomes and...