[Preliminary outcomes of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in surgical obesity treatment].

UNLABELLED: Obesity is an increasing medical and social problem. Besides conservative therapy, resulting in modest weight loss, the available treatment option is bariatric surgery. Surgery is recommended for patients with BMI > 40 or > 35 with comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis and poor quality of life.

THE AIM OF THIS STUDY: Evaluation of early outcomes and comparison the most often performed surgical procedures in treatment of obesity such as Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) and Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB).

MATERIAL AND METHODS: For this retrospective study we reviewed 26 patients treated surgically in our Department because of obesity between 2005 and 2006. There were 12 women and 14 men, ranging in age from 21 to 59 (median--41), BMI from 41 to 52 (median--45.5).

RESULTS: Patients were discharged on 2 day after LAGB and between 6 and 8 day after RYGB. Postoperative complications were noted in 3 patients. The first patient suffered from recurrent postoperative infection combined with abscess of abdominal wall. The treatment prolonged to 6 months and resulted in postoperative hernia. Finally he was operated once more and elongation of Roux limb was performed because of stopped weight loss. The operation of abdominal hernia in this case was performed at the same time. The second complication was band slippage with high obstruction 4 months after LAGB and the gastric band was removed. In the third patient pneumonia and pyothorax 7 days after LAGB was diagnosed. Noted weight loss 6 months after operations was from 9 to 25 kg after LAGB and from 17 to 38 kg after RYGB.

CONCLUSIONS: In our opinion bariatric surgery is the most efficient option to achieve weight loss in morbid obesity. Bariatric operations are characterized with relative low rate of complications. LAGB is shorter procedure and its risk is lower than RYGB, moreover after LAGB the anatomy of digestive tract is not modified and it is easy to remove gastric band when necessary.