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Updated: May 22, 2026
Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Operation in Rats
Published on: June 11, 2012
Durability of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery: a meta-regression study
Mark A Attiah1, Casey H Halpern, Usha Balmuri
1Center for Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA.
Objective:
The present meta-regression pools data from reports of long-term follow-up (>2 years) to assess durability of the efficacy associated with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery.
Data Sources:
Medline and PubMed searches for articles pertaining to long-term weight loss after RYGB surgery were performed.
Background:
Various studies have consistently shown short-term (<2 years) efficacy of RYGB surgery for morbid obesity, corroborated by meta-analytic techniques. Relatively few studies have assessed efficacy over longer periods of time. This is the first meta-analysis to analyze long-term effects of RYGB surgery on weight loss.
Methods:
Twenty-two reports with a total of 4206 patient cases were included. Sixteen of the 22 studies had multiple follow-up times, ranging from 2 to 12.3 years (mean: 3.6 years). An inverse variance weighted model and meta-regression were used to generate the pooled percent mean excess weight loss (EWL) and the durability of EWL over time, respectively.
Results:
Meta-regression did not reveal any significant change in EWL over time. Pooled mean EWL was 66.5%, and there was no significant association between EWL and length of follow-up.
Conclusions:
Pooling data from multiple studies meta-analytically revealed that weight loss after RYGB is maintained over the long-term. Further investigation would be necessary to ascertain similar durability in comorbidity reduction after RYGB surgery.
