7-YEAR RESULTS OF VERTICAL BANDED GASTROPLASTY FOR MORBID-OBESITY

Objective: To present our experience with a group of obese patients tr eated by vertical banded gastroplasty. Design: Open prospective study. Setting: Teaching hospital, Sweden. Subjects: 198 Morbidly obese pati ents operated on between 1986 and April 1994.Interventions: Modified M ason vertical banded gastroplasty. Main outcome measures: Weight loss, mortality, early and late morbidity, and reoperation. Results: The me an (SEM) age was 40 (0.7) and 149 of the 198 were women (75%). 22 Pati ents (11%) were lost to follow-up. Five patients died (3%), one soon a fter operation. Mean (SEM) body mass index (BMI) was 44.4 (0.5) preope ratively and this decreased to 32.6 (0.6) after four years (n = 99) an d 33.8 (1.3) after seven years (n = 20). 21 patients developed 24 earl y postoperative complications, and 31 patients were reoperated on 41 t imes for late complications. Conclusion: All patients lost weight afte r vertical banded gastroplasty, and their weight continued to decrease during a seven-year follow-up. This was somewhat offset by the high r ate of reoperations required.