Bypass beats banding in weight-loss surgery matchup

A rare side-by-side comparison of the two most popular weight-loss surgeries favored gastric bypass procedures for faster results, a new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers showed.

“Gastric bypass patients lost more weight and did so faster and more consistently than patients receiving gastric bands,” said Dr. Nancy Puzziferri a UT Southwestern bariatric surgeon and lead author of the study in Annals of Surgery. The study reviewed more than 1,500 patients, whose outcomes were measured four times during the two years after surgery.

Although bypass came out ahead, the study also showed that more than 90 percent of both bypass and banding patients who initially lost at least 40 percent of their weight successfully managed to keep it off two years after surgery.

Visit http://www.utsouthwestern.org/surgery to learn more about clinical services in surgery at UT Southwestern.

Media Contact: Russell Rian

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