LAP-BAND(R) System Weight-Loss Surgery Associated With More Than 70 Percent Reduced Risk of Death in People With Seve...( Observational study publis...),Health

Observational study published in the Annals of Surgery

MELBOURNE, Australia, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Severely obese people who received the LAP-BAND(R) 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-loss treatment, according to findings published in the December issue of the Annals of Surgery (1). The LAP-BAND(R) System was approved in June 2001 by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for weight reduction in severely obese adults.

"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 invasive bariatric surgical procedures, such as gastric bypass."

The study involved two groups of people who were between 37 and 70 years of age with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 35 kg/m2 or greater: A LAP-BAND(R) System group, which included 966 patients (average age 47, average BMI 45 kg/m2) and a previously established population-based cohort of 2119 people who were not offered any specific weight-loss treatment (average age 55, average BMI 38 kg/m2). There were four deaths (heart disease, cancer(2) and suicide) in the LAP-BAND(R) 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 c
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