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“To Bypass or Switch?” Dr. Gagner Writes Article For Prestigious Journal, Nature Reviews.

In a recent article written by Dr. Gagner and published by Nature Review: Gastroenterology Hepatology, Dr. Gagner comments on the debate on which surgery is best to achieve weight loss and improve health. In light of a new study, duodenal switch is considered superior to gastric bypass for weight loss in patients with a BMI, but patients suffered more adverse affects.

In this study conducted by Risstad and colleagues, 60 patients with a BMI between 50 and 60 were randomly assigned to receive either a gastric bypass or a duodenal switch, and then observed over a 5-year period. It was found that, on average, those who had received a gastric bypass had an average BMI reduction of 13.6, while those who had duodenal switches saw reductions of 22.1. Moreover,  only 14% of duodenal switch surgeries were considered unsuccessful versus 55% for gastric bypasses.

Duodenal switch was also associated with more gastrointestinal adverse events, however. In the opinion of Dr. Gagner, “the quality of life in those who received duodenal switch might have been underestimated by a higher frequency of adverse effects as a result of learning curve issues than in those who received gastric bypass”. This means that patients who received a duodenal switch had substantially more hospital admissions than patients with gastric bypass.

Take a look at Nature ReviewsApril issue to learn more: