This month I read a very interesting study on long term weight loss outcome following bariatric surgery performed at Veterans Affairs, VA, medical centers. The first study is published online in JAMA Surgery by first author Matthew Maciejewski from Durham VA medical center. The retrospective study evaluated long-term weight loss in 1787 veterans who underwent gastric bypass surgery in VA facilities between 2000 and 2011. The majority of patients were white males with a mean BMI at 47.7. The control groups consisted of 5305 patients who did not undergo surgery and had a mean BMI of 47.1. The 10 year follow up rate was around 82% for the gastric bypass group and 67.4% for the control group. At 10 years, the majority of gastric bypass patients have lost more than 20% of their pre-operative weight compared to 11% of the control group. Only 3% of the gastric bypass patients have gained their weight back at 10 years.

Gastric bypass surgery remains the gold standard weight loss procedure with an extensive high quality data supporting its efficacy and durability. Gastric bypass surgery has stood the test of time and once again we enjoy reading an excellent evaluation of long term weight loss results following gastric bypass surgery.

Weight loss, however, is not the only benefit reaped from gastric bypass surgery. Resolution of many obesity related co-morbidities like type 2 diabetes and hypertension is equally important. Some of these metabolic benefits of gastric bypass surgery are independent of weight loss. It would be interesting to compare the incidence of type 2 diabetes in both the gastric bypass and control group over a ten year period.