Sleeve Weight Loss Trials

Several varieties of gastric bypass surgeries are now performed in specialized clinics throughout the country. Clinical trials have shown these procedures to be a mostly safe and effective alternative for those who are morbidly obese. In several of the procedures, the lumen, or interior, of either the small intestine or the stomach is physically restrained from expanding, thereby decreasing the surface areas of the organs for the absorption and digestion of food respectively.

Bariatric surgery trials

• A clinical study review published in the March 2011 issue of "Obesity Reviews" investigated the efficacy and safety of bariatric surgery trials involving several procedures in addition to sleeve gastrectomy. The procedures reviewed also included mini-gastric bypass, vertical banded gastroplasty and biliopancreatic diversion. The authors found that the sleeve gastrectomy method showed an average decrease of 10.1 kg/m2 in Body Mass Index ( BMI) values, which they concluded to be one of the most successful surgical procedures for weight loss.

Laparoscopic sleeve gasterectomy

• A November 2010 journal article appearing in "Surgery in Obesity and Related Diseases" documented the effectiveness of the laparoscopic sleeve gasterectomy (LSG) procedure. The authors conducted a review of medical literature from several databases and screened more than 3,500 articles. Their results found that the average patient had a baseline BMI value of 47.4 kg/m2 and the average loss after this procedure amounted to a 47 percent loss of excess weight. They concluded that this procedure also resulted in "most" of the participants experiencing improvement in or resolution of type II diabetes.

Duodenojejunal bypass sleeve

• The November 2009 issue of "Gastrointestinal Endoscopy" included a review study in which the authors investigated a medical device called the duodenojejunal bypass sleeve. They stated that this procedure is the only endoluminal (inside of the lumen or, in this case, the small intestine) device studied in humans that works by inhibiting the absorption of food. The study concluded that this procedure has promise as a surgical alternative in the treatment of obesity.

Failed Gastric Binding Procedure

• A review of the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, LSG, method underwent evaluation in a study in the April 2009 issue of "Obesity Surgery." The authors evaluated the success of the procedure used as either a primary or as a secondary method following a failed gastric binding procedure. They found that after one year, the average BMI loss was 65 percent, after two years it was 63 percent and after three years it was 60 percent. The study concluded that LSG was both a safe and effective procedure for long-term weight loss with limited complications and no mortalities reported for their sample of the patients.

Sleeve Gastrectomy

• A study in the July 2009 issue of "Surgery in Obesity and Related Diseases" evaluated the sleeve gastrectomy procedure for patients with a BMI between 30 and 35 kg/m2, who were considered to have class I obesity. They performed a trial involving almost 80 patients and conducted a follow-up examination after six months. The researchers reported that all of their patients had lost 100 percent of their excess body mass and had an average BMI value of 25 kg/m2 within six months after surgery. The study concluded that sleeve gastrectomy is a promising tool for weight loss but cautioned that larger patient populations would have to be further evaluated.