When Is Weight Loss Surgery Successful?
For bariatric surgery to be successful, a patient must lose 50 percent of their excess body weight, and keep it off in the long term. Therefore, in the case of a patient who is 200 pounds overweight, the gastric bypass or lap-band operation is considered successful if the patient loses at least 100 pounds and keeps it off long-term (> 6-10 years). Results of gastroplasty (stomach stapling) and gastric banding – that is, restrictive surgeries – typically show an average loss of 50-60 percent of excess body weight at 12 months, followed by a slow weight gain thereafter. Five years after the operation, only 50 percent of patients have successfully kept the weight off, and at 10 years, as few as 26 percent of patients report successful weight maintenance. Recent studies show that lap-band bariatric operations can extend the weight loss over 2 to 3 years. Results of Roux-en-Y, Biliopancreatic Diversion and Duodenal Switch gastric bypass surgeries – the malabsorptive type of weight loss surg
