Lap Bands Save Lives! Live Longer! Be Happy!

Hmmmm, maybe you can get your grandparents to pay for it.

From the December 2007 Annals of Surgery:

2007 DEC 3 – (NewsRx.com) — Severely obese people who received the LAP-BAND Adjustable Gastric Banding System to lose weight had a 72 percent reduction in their risk of dying compared to obese people who were not offered any specific weight-losstreatment, according to findings published in the December issue of the Annals of Surgery. The LAP-BAND System was approved in June 2001 by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for weight reduction in severely obese adults.

Got that? Seventy two percent decrease in the risk of dying. Seventy two percent. Wow.

“This research is critical because it shows that people with severe obesity, who are known to be at a much higher risk than the general population for dying prematurely, may be
able to significantly decrease their risk with laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding,” explains Dr. Paul O’Brien, FRACS a study author from the Monash University Centre for Obesity Research and Education (CORE) in Melbourne, Australia, head of the Centre for Bariatric Surgery in Melbourne and the National Medical Director for the American Institute of Gastric Banding in Dallas, Texas. “What is also particularly compelling is that this study shows it is possible to gain a significant survival benefit without the risks associated with more invasivebariatric surgical procedures, such as gastric bypass.”

And here’s the numbers on the study:

The study involved two groups of people who were between 37 and 70 years of age with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 35 or greater: A LAP-BAND System group, which included 966 patients (average age 47, average BMI 45 ) and a previously established population-based cohort of 2119 people who were not offered any specific weight-loss treatment (average age 55, average BMI). There were four deaths (heart disease, cancer(2) and suicide) in the LAP-BAND System group after a median follow-up of four years, vs. 225 deaths after a median follow-up of 12 years in the non-treated group. After statistically controlling for the differences in follow up time, sex, age and BMI, the hazard for death was 72 percent lower for LAP-BAND System patients compared to the non-treated group (hazard ratio for death: 0.28, 95% confidence interval: 0.10-0.85). LAP-BAND System patients lost an average of approximately 63 pounds 2 years after installation.

I, for one, would very much like to lose 63 pounds and live longer.

And more from a press release on the study:

The study showed that LAP-BAND patients lost greater amounts of weight and saw a reduction in the metabolic syndrome, a condition in obese people where insulin levels are too high and which puts people at greater risk of problems such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and abnormal blood lipid levels, than non-surgical patients-at no additional adverse risk.

Here’s good news for our only slightly chunky friends:

“Currently, the generally accepted practice is to perform weight-loss surgery only on the severely and morbidly obese,” said Professor O’Brien. “But these positive results suggest that physicians should re-examine the guidelines for weight-loss surgery to determine if they should be expanded to include mild to moderately obese patients.”

And the reduction in metabolic syndrome? Well….

In addition to losing weight, the metabolic syndrome was significantly more likely to be resolved after two years in the surgical group than the non-surgical group. At the start of the study, metabolic syndrome was present in 38 percent of members of the surgical and non-surgical groups. At the end of the study, only 3 percent of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding patients and 24 percent of non-surgical patients presented with metabolic syndrome.

Here’s the “Be Happy” part:

While both groups reported improvements in quality of life, participants who received the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band reported greater improvements.

And here it is again – the dieters lose weight, but they cannot keep it off. Right here in this study one more time:

The extent of weight loss was equal for both groups at 6 months, but then the non-surgical group regained weight that had been lost while surgical patients continued to lose and were continuing to lose through the study’s conclusion.

The average surgical patient’s body mass index (BMI) went from 33.7 at the beginning of the study to 26.4 after 2 years. The non-surgical group’s BMI was reduced from an average of 33.5 at the beginning of the study to 31.5 at the study’s conclusion.

It’s hard to get around. A 72% decrease in the risk of dying is very, very big deal. To be able to get rid of metabolic syndrome, and to have a better quality of life while living longer – what is that worth?