Health Benefits of Gastric Bypass Surgery After 6 Years

Abstract

HE PREVALENCE OF EXTREMEobesity in the United States is increasing at a rate greater than moderate obesity. 1 , 2 Unfortunately, lifestyle therapy is generally insufficient as a weight management intervention for patients who are extremely obese. To date, effective long-term weight loss through pharmacological therapy has been marginal, leaving bariatric For editorial comment see p 1160.

The effectiveness of bariatric surgery on long term psychosocial quality of life – A systematic review

“…This again is in line with previous statistical findings in weight loss surgery literature [18,62,[64][65]. Weight loss tended to slow down with longer follow up and in some cases weight regain occurred [59]. No percentage weight loss (%WL) or %EWL was reported in Nickel et al [56].…”

“…In the longer term Utah Obesity Group studies [59,60] there was an absence of significant improvement in the SF-36 mental component score for the GB group after six years, contrary to marked significant improvements in the physical component scores and overall QoL score [59].…”

“…The majority of participants in the studies were female and mean age ranged from 39 years [55] to 48 years [39] which is representative of the BS population in the UK [14] Group differences in baseline characteristics were noted in most of the studies apart from the four controlled trials [51,52,56,39] and Buddeberg-Fischer et al [54]. The general trend being that the surgery group tended to be significantly younger, with greater weight or BMI than the no surgery group [55] or population based obese control group [57][58][59][60]. Batsis et al [53] reported more males, lower incidence of diabetes and lower BMI in their no surgery group compared to the surgery group.…”

“…There were two studies that assessed QoL in BS participants against controls for two years [57,58]. Both studies along with Koloktin et al [60] and Adams et al [59] form part of the Utah Obesity Study, an ongoing prospective study of GB patients that includes 2 obese control groups; those seeking but not undergoing GB (primarily due to insurance cover restrictions) and a population based obese group not seeking BS. Both studies [57 & 58] reported significantly greater improvements in overall QoL in the GB group than the controls with moderate to very large effect sizes for the GB group in psychosocial QoL compared to small to moderate effects sizes for the other groups [57].…”

Living a successful weight loss after severe obesity

“…Weight loss surgery is the most effective intervention for long-term weight loss, but carries risk of mortality, complications and late effects, and health outcomes are largely unknown (Adams et al, 2012; Colquitt, Pickett, Loveman, & Frampton, 2014; Puzziferri et al, 2014). Surgery is not an option for all patients, because of individual preferences—for example, avoiding risks or advocating fat acceptance—or societal barriers, such as financial or health system barriers (NCD risk factor collaboration, 2016).…”