According to a Reuters report, the study followed 60 severely obese patients who were randomly assigned to either gastric bypass surgery or a more complicated procedure known as duodenal switch. Two years following surgery, duodenal switch patients had lost, on average, 50 pounds more than their gastric bypass counterparts.
Patients shed a substantial amount of weight with either surgery. Gastric bypass patients lost an average of 111 pounds, while duodenal switch patients lost an average of 162.
However, duodenal switch patients also experienced nearly double the complication rate of gastric bypass patients. Of the 29 duodenal switch patients, 62 percent had problems such as abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea and intestinal obstruction. Several also suffered long-term malnutrition, which did not occur among gastric bypass patients.
According to the report, duodenal switch is often reserved for “superobese” patients with a BMI higher than 50. It accounted for just 1 percent of weight loss surgeries performed in the U.S. in 2008.
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