The surgical series was composed of 821 patients with a body mass index (BMI) >40 kg/m2 consecutively treated with LAGB at Padova University, Italy. The reference group was composed of 821 gender-, age-, and BMI-matched patients selected from a sample of 4681 adults with a BMI >40 kg/m2 observed at 6 Italian medical centers not using surgical therapy.
The mean follow-up was 5.6 ¡À 1.9 and 7.2 ¡À 1.2 years in the surgical and reference group, respectively. The vital status was known in 97.6 % of the surgical group (8 deaths) and in 97.4 % of the reference group (36 deaths). In the surgical group, the percentage of excess weight loss was 39.8 % ¡À 17.9 % 1 year after LAGB and 37.2 % ¡À 23.8 % 5 years after LAGB. The rate of late revisional surgery was 12.2 % . Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the differences between the 2 groups were evaluated using the log-rank test. The survival rate was significantly greater in the surgical group (P = 0.0004). On multivariate Cox analysis, the 5-year relative risk of death in the surgical group, adjusted for gender, age, and baseline BMI, was 0.36 (95 % confidence interval 0.16?.80).
LAGB was associated with a 0 % operative mortality rate and 40 % stable excess weight loss. LAGB patients had a 5-year 60 % lower risk of death than comparable morbidly obese patients.