Surgery in Patients with Super Obesity: Medium-Term Follow-Up Outcomes at a High-Volume Center

There is a need to determine which bariatric operations are the most effective for patients with super obesity and super-super obesity.

A retrospective cohort study was performed on patients with super obesity and super-super obesity at Mohak Bariatrics and Robotics Surgery Center in Indore, India.

Five hundred fourteen patients with super obesity and super-super obesity had surgery at our center from January 2010 through December 2013. The baseline characteristics were different in different operations. The initial average age, weight, and BMI were 44.4 (SD 11.9) years, 145.4 (SD 24.2) kg, and 55.48 (SD 5.32) kg/m² , respectively. Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) (227 [44.2%]) was the most common procedure, followed by one-anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB) (124 [24.1%]), Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) (102 [19.8%]), banded sleeve gastrectomy (BSG) (33 [6.4%]), and banded Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (BRYGB) (28 [5.4%]). After 3 years, the percentages of excess body weight loss (%EBWL) for SG, OAGB, RYGB, BSG, and BRYGB were 62.38%, 78.59%, 69.55%, 85.11%, and 75.77% (P < 0.0001), respectively. Failure to achieve BMI < 35 kg/m² was more frequent in the group who underwent SG (67.9%), followed by RYGB (29.16%), BRYGB (22.2%), OAGB (9.87%), and none in the BSG group.

BSG, OAGB, and BRYGB have very good to excellent midterm outcomes for patients with super obesity and super-super obesity, whereas RYGB and SG have average outcomes at 3 years. There is a need for multicenter, long-term, and prospective studies to be performed to confirm these findings.