First Experience in Quality of Life Analysis After Bariatric Surgery

Introduction. The prevalence of obesity has increased markedly in the past 20 years therefore, bariatric surgery plays an important role in obesity treatment. Aim of the study. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) and it influence on patients' quality of life (QOL) in the management of morbid obesity. Materials and methods. 18 patients with morbid obesity underwent LAGB procedure at the Paul Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia. Data collected were: age, sex, weight, height and operation time, body mass index (BMI), excessive body weight (EBW) and comorbidities. Patients fulfilled general Short Form Health Survey with 36 questions before operation (a), 6 month (b) and 12 month (c) after operation. License was acquired for SF-36v2® use in the study. Results. The mean ± SD age of patients was 42.5 ± 11.8 years (25-63) with 83.3% of them female. The mean ± SD weight was 133.7 ± 20.3 kg (104-176), mean ± SD height 168.7 ± 9.4 cm (155-189) and mean BMI 46.2 ± 6.6 kg/m2 (36.8-58.8). The mean ± SD weight at 6 month follow up was 113.5 ± 17.8 kg (p=0.001). The postoperative mean BMI at 6 month follow up was 39.32 ± 6.1 kg/m2 (p=0.001). The mean percentage of excessive body weight (EBW) loss at 6 months was 30.4%. QOL life was higher after operation (b, c) comparing to preoperative data (a), but there were no statistically significant difference in any of the scales Conclusions. The efficacy of LAGB surgery in long-term is still uncertain, but our early results are comparable to other series. To determine the true efficacy of LAGB in weight control and impact on QOL, a longer follow-up period is necessary, more cases to analyze and data from control group of general population. Our findings suggest that life quality questionnaire SF-36v2® is good tool to measure patient's quality of life before and after operation, to discuss effectiveness of operations techniques and to observe quality of life dynamics.