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Obese patients maintained about 50% excess weight loss for as long as 15 years after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, (LAGB), Australian investigators reported.
Experience at a single center showed an average of 47% excess weight loss in 714 patients followed for more than 10 years after LAGB, including 47% among patients followed for 15 years and 62% in a small group followed for 16 years, according to Paul O'Brien, MD, and colleagues, of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
A systematic review of published studies revealed a mean excess weight loss of 54% at 10 years and beyond for patients treated with LAGB or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), they reported in the January issue of Annals of Surgery.
The results also showed a marked reduction in late-occurring adverse events after LAGB, the authors added.
"Gastric banding is a safe and effective treatment option for obesity in the long term," they said. "The systematic review shows that all current procedures achieve substantial long-term weight loss. It supports the existing data that LAGB is safer than RYGB and finds that the long-term weight loss outcomes and needs for revisional surgery for these two procedures are not different."
Despite a history dating back more than 50 years, bariatric surgery has a paucity of long-term data to demonstrate durable weight loss. Most published studies have follow-up of less than 3 years. Systematic reviews have added relatively little in terms of long-term follow-up data, according to the authors.
O'Brien and colleagues introduced LAGB at their center in 1994, and have followed all patients by means of a dedicated bariatric surgery database. As of December 2011, O'Brien and co-author Wendy Brown, MBBS, PhD, also of Monash University, had treated 3,227 patients with LAGB.
The authors performed a prospective longitudinal cohort study of the patients. For comparison, they performed a systematic review of published literature on bariatric surgery. The focus was on long-term follow-up, 15 years for the cohort and 10 years for the systematic review.
The cohort had mean age of 47 and a mean presurgical body mass index of 43.8 kg/m2. The authors identified 714 patients followed for at least 10 years, including 54 patients followed for 15 years and 14 followed for 16 years.
The 10-year excess weight loss was 47%. The authors reported that 26% of patients required revisions for proximal enlargement, 21% for port and tubing problems, and 3.4% for erosion. Band removal was performed in 5.6% of patients.
During the first 10 years of clinical experience, the revision rate for proximal enlargement was 40%, declining to 6.4% during the last 5 years of the study period. Patients with and without revisions had similar excess weight loss.
The systematic review consisted of 19 published articles, 24 data sets, and approximately 14,000 patients. The data included six sets involving patients with LAGB, nine sets for RYGB, five sets for gastroplasty, three for biliopancreatic diversion or duodenal switch (BPD/DS), and one involving fixed open gastric banding.
According to the authors, every study had deficiencies related to data reporting. None of the studies was a randomized controlled trial. One investigation was a prospective, nonrandomized, matched interventional study, and the rest were observational studies.
With respect to safety, one perioperative death occurred in 6,177 LAGB procedures, compared with 21 in 2,684 RYGB procedures (P<0.001).
Excess weight loss at 10 years averaged 54% with LAGB and RYGB, 53% with gastroplasty, and 73.3% with BPD/DS. The mean revision rate was 26% with LAGB and 22% with RYGB. Revision rates from individual data sets ranged as high as 60% with LAGB and 38% with RYGB.
"The longitudinal cohort study of the LAGB patients shows that they have achieved and maintained a loss of nearly half of their excess weight to 15 years," the authors wrote. "The validity of the 15-year figure of 47% of excess weight loss is reinforced by the pooling of all long-term data (≥10 years) and finding the same weight loss of 47% excess weight loss for the much larger group."
"The systematic review serves to emphasize the clinical value of all current bariatric procedures," they added. "With a weighted mean of more than 50% excess weight loss at 10 years or more, bariatric surgery far exceeds the effectiveness of nonsurgical weight loss programs in terms of long-term effectiveness, a key requirement for treating a chronic disease such as obesity."
They do not believe their results are unique to Australia, as the systematic review was derived from European groups and their center's data fell in the mid-range of the literature review.
From the American Heart Association:
- Bariatric Surgery and Cardiovascular Risk Factors
- New and Emerging Weight Management Strategies for Busy Ambulatory Settings
The study was supported by the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Monash University. The center receives grant support from Allergan.
O'Brien disclosed that he receives royalties for a patient handbook that he wrote. A co-author disclosed a relationship with Allergan.
- Reviewed by F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE Instructor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner