Does Bariatric Surgery Lower Long-Term Mortality?

Although it’s reasonable to assume that weight loss after bariatric surgery is associated with decreased long-term mortality, this assumption has not been proven. In two new studies, researchers address this issue.

In a prospective nonrandomized study from Sweden, about 2000 obese people (mean body-mass index, 42 kg/m²) who underwent elective bariatric surgery were compared with a similar number of obese controls matched for 18 variables. Surgical procedures were vertical banded gastroplasty (68%), banding (19%), and gastric bypass (13%). During an average follow-up of 11 years, 5.0% of surgery patients and 6.3% of controls died. In multivariate analysis adjusted for potentially confounding variables, surgery was a significant independent pr…