Quality-of-life outcome after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding for morbid obesity

Background: The definition of success and failure of a bariatric procedure should include weight loss as well as improvement of comorbidity and qualit y-of-life (QoL) assessment. QoL measures changes in physical, functional, m ental, and social health in order to evaluate benefits of new programs and interventions. Material and Methods: From April 1995 until March 1999, 287 patients underw ent laparoscopic adjustable silicone gastric banding (LASGB) at Northwest H ospital Frankfurt a.M. (Germany). In this study, 100 of 287 patients (preop erative mean BMI 48.3 kg/m(2); mean age 35.2 years) with a follow-up >18 mo nth were evaluated. All patients underwent anonymous questionnaire (26 ques tions with a maximum score of 60) about different aspects of QoL outcome af ter LSAGB. Results: In this study, 4 of 100 patients refused to give an answer to the QoL questions. Therefore 96 patients were evaluated. The QoL auto-evaluatio n of the patients shows that QoL generally improved after surgery in 92%. U sing the scoring system, 44% of patients have excellent, 52% good, and only 4% bad results. The 4 patients who refused had to be classified as failure . General acceptance of LSAGB is wide, but gastrointestinal side effects ar e recognizable in more than 78% of operated patients. Successful weight los s is followed by an improvement of comorbidities. Conclusions: Safe, effective bariatric procedures increase the quality of l ife in morbidly obese patients markedly. Bariatric surgeons are committed t o support and help their patients until they reach a new quality of life af ter obesity surgery.