Importance: Adjustable gastric bands are widely used because of low postoperative morbidity, but their long-term results are poor, often leading to revisional surgery.
Objective: To assess the safety of revisional procedures by comparing the 30-day outcomes of primary gastric bypass vs revisions following failed adjustable gastric banding.
Design, setting, and participants: Retrospective review using logistic regression models to compute odds ratios (95% CIs) across preoperative body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) quartiles to evaluate the risk for major adverse outcomes at 30 days (death, venous thromboembolism, reinterventions, and failure to be discharged). The prospective database of a single university surgical center in Paris, France, was queried for clinical and other relevant data among all patients undergoing primary or revisional laparoscopic gastric bypass between January 1, 2004, and June 30, 2013.
Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was a comparison between 30-day outcomes of primary gastric bypass and procedures following failed adjustable gastric banding.
Results: In total, 831 patients had a primary procedure (group 1), and 177 patients had a secondary procedure after failed adjustable gastric banding (group 2). Overall, 78.7% of patients were female, the mean (SD) patient age was 42.6 (11.6) years, the mean (SD) body mass index was 47.6 (7.6), and mortality at 30 days was 0.5%. The rates of major adverse outcomes were similar in group 1 (7.8%) and group 2 (8.5%) (P = .77). In multivariate analyses, odds ratios for major adverse outcomes across preoperative body mass index quartiles (<42, 42-46, >46 to 52, and >52) were 1.00, 0.39 (95% CI, 0.20-0.77; P = .006), 0.55 (95% CI, 0.30-1.02; P = .06), and 0.50 (95% CI, 0.27-0.94; P = .03), respectively.
Conclusions and relevance: The 30-day major adverse outcome rates were similar for primary gastric bypass and for procedures following failed adjustable gastric banding. Long-term comparative studies are required to better understand the quadratic relationship between body mass index and early postoperative outcomes.