Long-Term Safety and Efficacy of Bariatric Surgery in Septuagenarians

Abstract

Background: Metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) has been shown to be safe and effective in the elderly population. Unfortunately, utilization of MBS in patients aged 70 years or older remains low, as MBS was just recently endorsed by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity (IFSO) for septuagenarians.

Materials and methods: We performed a single-center retrospective cohort study of 103 patients aged ≥ 70 years who underwent sleeve gastrectomy (SG) or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) from January 2008 until March 2023. The data analyzed included patient demographics, post-operative complications, resolution of obesity-related comorbidities, and weight loss.

Results: A total of 103 patients (71% female; age 72.1 ± 2.5 years; BMI 43.7 ± 6.8 kg/m²) were included. Sixty-two patients (60.2%) underwent RYGB while the remaining 41 underwent SG (39.8%), with a mean follow-up of 4.7 ± 3.7 years. There was no MBS-related mortality. All-cause mortality rates were 7.3% for the SG group after a mean period of 4.5 ± 3.9 years compared to 8.1% for the RYGB cohort after 7.7 ± 3.5 years (p = 0.601). RYGB was reported to have a higher rate of early and late complications when compared to LSG (p = 0.083 and p = 0.274). T2DM (p = 0.011) and OSA (p = 0.019) resolved significantly after RYGB.

Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that bariatric surgery is safe and effective in patients aged 70 years and older. Bariatric surgery should not be denied to this group of patients based on chronological age alone. Further studies are required to support these findings.

Keywords: Bariatric surgery; Elderly; Gastric bypass; Obesity; Sleeve gastrectomy.