CNN has a comparison of different radical anti-obesity surgeries, commemorating a comparative study on obesity-surgery techniques commissioned by the US government:
American doctors have preferred bypass operations because they produce faster, greater weight loss. But new research by O'Brien and others calls that into question.
Combining results on 23,638 patients in 43 published studies, they found that bypasses beat bands for the first three years but were comparable after seven years, with excess weight loss of 55 percent for bypass and 51 percent for bands.
That impressed Dr. Edward Livingston, chief of gastrointestinal surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and chief of bariatric surgery for the Department of Veteran's Affairs national system.
"I really was not enthusiastic about bands until I came to Dallas from Los Angeles and saw the results from the group that I joined, which where quite good," he confessed. "What you can accomplish in a year with a gastric bypass you can accomplish in five years with a laparoscopic band."
