Stomach stapling and other surgical procedures to help overweight people eat less may be radical, but they also could be safer than staying obese, new research suggests.
Health experts at an international conference in Sydney have warned that soaring obesity rates are putting millions of people around the globe at risk of premature death from diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure and related illnesses.
However, two studies presented to the conference this week suggest that patients who undergo surgery to lose weight are up to 73 percent less likely to suffer early death than people who remain obese.
A study by Australia's Monash University started in 1994 compared around 1,500 obese patients who underwent surgery to a control group matched for age, sex, height and weight.
Twelve years later, those who had the surgery had lost about 51 percent of their excess weight, and were 73 percent less likely to have died prematurely than the control group, the researchers said.
The patients in the Australian study underwent a procedure known as laproscopic gastric banding, in which an adjustable silicone band is placed around the upper stomach, creating a small gastric pouch that limits food consumption and creates an earlier feeling of fullness.
John Dixon, the head of clinical research at Monash's Center for Obesity Research, acknowledged the study received partial funding from the company that makes the surgical bands, but insists the findings are clear.
"Seventy (three) percent reduction is very substantial," Dixon said on the sidelines of the International Congress on Obesity. "We don't have many treatments that have that sort of life-saving effect."
A similar study conducted by the University of Utah School of Medicine matched around 8,200 patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery — or stomach stapling — to statistics from the U.S. National Death Registry matched by age, sex, height and weight.
Almost two decades later, the study found that those who underwent surgery were 53 percent less likely to have died prematurely, excluding deaths from accidents or other non-health-related causes.
The surgical group were also 88 percent less likely to have died from diabetes and 64 percent less likely to have died from cancer than the non-surgical group.
The study, presented to the congress on Monday, concluded that gastric bypass surgery "is an effective weight loss treatment for improving health of severely obese patients."
Dr. Matthew Carmody, a professor of surgery at the University of Queensland who was not involved in the studies, said weight loss surgery can bring about dramatic improvements in health, but is not without risk.
People who lose weight after surgery can return their risk of heart disease, strokes and kidney failure to near normal levels, and are more likely to keep the weight off longer, he said.
Carmody said gastric bands are a relatively safe option for obese people, who are prone to surgical complications because of their overall poor health.
Fewer than 1 percent of patients in Australia have died undergoing the procedure.
Gastric bypass operations, which involve cutting away part of the stomach and rerouting the intestines, are more effective than banding, but involve much higher risk.
"The gastric bypass operations are the ones that the American celebrities have because they do give slightly higher success rates, but at about 10 times the risk of death and complications," Carmody said.
"Bypass surgery, even in very safe countries like Australia and America is still a risky option."
The International Obesity Congress, organized by the International Association of Obesity Research, wraps up Friday after hearing research and papers from almost 400 experts.
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