The work, coordinated by Michel Suter, Hospital Chablais (Aigle-Monthey, Lausanne, Switzerland), compared the case of 492 patients with morbid obesity (body mass index-BMI-was greater than 40) with 133 individuals superobese (BMI greater than 50). All of them had undergone bariatric surgery, specifically gastric bypass and laparoscopic Roux.

Among other variables, researchers evaluated the amount of weight loss, improved quality of life and the impact of the intervention on other diseases or conditions suffered by participants.

The results of their work showed that morbidly obese individuals were able to reduce their weight by 34.7% at 18 months of invtervention. Six years later, this group had achieved average losses of 30.1% of body weight.

For their part, patients had lost weight superobese to two and a half to a maximum of 37.3%, after six years, the weight loss amounted to 30.7%.

Similar results

Although the losses were slightly higher among individuals superobese, the average body mass index in this group remained significantly higher than the rest because of its higher initial overweight.

“Between 85 and 90% of morbidly obese individuals were able to reach a BMI below 35, while less than 50% of superobese succeeded. Of these, 25% remained in the range of morbid obesity, “write the researchers.

Despite these differences, researchers found that the development of diseases associated with obesity, such as changes in cholesterol or glucose metabolism was similar in both groups.

Improvements in quality of life of patients after surgery was similar among participants, although some had greatly reduced their level of obesity.

“The lower residual weight or BMI is not the only important thing. Other aspects of the outcome of bariatric surgery must be evaluated to draw meaningful conclusions on the effectiveness of the operation,” the researchers comment in their work.

Nevertheless, these authors note that, to ratify the results of their work should be carried out further research, because in his work only took into account a particular surgical technique.

In an article accompanying this work in the medical journal, the surgical specialist of the University of Wisconsin (USA), Jon Gould, agrees with the authors noted that bariatric surgery is “more than a weight loss operation” .

“The community of scholars should emphasize changes in the health and quality of life that are achieved with these operations,” he concludes.