efficacy and mortality for bariatric surgery for obesity

Last reviewed 06/2022

Efficacy of surgical methods (1) - generally successful in inducing substantial weight loss in the majority of obese patients

• gastric restriction - excess weight loss 3 to 5 years after gastric restriction is between 40 - 60%; however there is often a slow regain thereafter. Some patients lose no weight at all
  
  
• gastric bypass operations usually achieve an excess weight loss of between 49 - 62% maintained over a 5 to 14 year period
  • operative mortality approximately 1%; procedure can be associated with nutritional deficiency
    
    
• biliopancreatic division
  • achieves up to 78% excess weight loss at 5 years with a 1% operative mortality
  • nutritional deficiencies are relatively common (between 5 to 40% of patients)
  • alterations in bowel movements are frequent with 3 to 5 offensive motions occurring each day

Obese type II diabetic patients treated surgically experience dramatic improvement in diabetic control.

More recent data has show the perioperative mortality as being <0.3% for the average patient and improving (2).

Reference:

• British Heart Foundation (February 2005). Obesity (4 of 4): Medical and Surgical Interventions.
• Nguyen NT, Slone JA, Nguyen XM, Hartman JS, Hoyt DB. A prospective randomized trial of laparoscopic gastric bypass versus laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding for the treatment of morbid obesity: outcomes, quality of life, and costs. Ann Surg2009;250:631-41