Pyrrhic victory? Long-term results of biliopancreatic diversion on patients with type 2 diabetes and severe obesity

The Alarming Rate of Malnutrition after Single Anastomosis Sleeve Ileal Bypass. A single Centre Experience

BACKGROUND

Single anastomosis sleeve ileal (SASI) bypass is a modification of sleeve gastrectomy with transit bipartition (SG + TB). This study aims to assess the safety and efficacy of SASI as a primary metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS).

METHODS

This is a retrospective case series of 30 patients who underwent SASI bypass from January to December 2021. All patients completed at least 12 months of follow-up.

RESULTS

Among the 30 patients, 93.3% were women, the mean age was 37.4 years, and the mean body mass index (BMI) was 45.6 kg/m2. The percentage of total body weight loss (TWL%) was 42.7%, the percent excess body weight loss (EWL%) was 92.7%, and the mean BMI at 12 months went from 45.6(35.2-58.4) to 25.8 kg/m2 (19.2-33.4). The obesity-associated complications remission rate was 87.5% for type 2 diabetes (T2D), 71.4% for hypertension (HTN) and 100% for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Thirteen patients (43.3%) had diarrhea, 7 (23.3%) had hypoalbuminemia, defined as serum albumin < 3 g/dl, and 6 (20%) underwent reversal of their index SASI. As for other nutritional issues, iron deficiency anemia was present in 21 patients (70%), while 19 patients (63.3%) had vitamin D, and 2(6.6%) had vitamin B12 deficiency.

CONCLUSION

Despite good short-term weight loss and improvement of obesity-associated complications, SASI is accompanied by high alarming malnutrition, even in short-term follow-up. Novel MBS should be judged for their long-term effects and compared to well-tested standard operations before they are used in routine clinical practice.

Biliopancreatic diversion for severe obesity: long-term weight maintenance and occurrence of nutritional complications are two facets of the same coin

BACKGROUND

Despite the widespread clinical use of hypoabsorptive metabolic bariatric surgery, very long-term outcomes are still lacking. The aim of the study was to assess the long-term safety and efficacy of biliopancreatic diversion at 30 years in patients with class 3 obesity (BMI over 40 kg/m2).

METHODS

This retrospective single-centre study used data from a prospectively collected database on a sample of consecutive patients submitted to biliopancreatic diversion with a minimum follow-up of 30 years. Outcomes assessed included overall survival, long-term weight loss and weight maintenance, remission of obesity-related co-morbidities, and short- and long-term surgical and/or nutritional or metabolic complications.

RESULTS

Among 199 consecutive patients (136 female, 63 male) who had surgery between November 1992 and April 1994, the mean age at operation was 38 (range 14-69) years and mean preoperative BMI was 48.7 (32.0-74.3) kg/m2. At baseline, 91 of 199 patients (45.7%) had type 2 diabetes. At 20 and 30 years, 122 (61%) and 38 (19%) of the 199 patients respectively were available for follow-up. At 30 years, the overall mortality rate was 12% (23 of 199). Surgical complications were concentrated in the short-term follow-up, whereas nutritional or metabolic complications increased progressively over time. A nutritional complication was diagnosed in 73 of 122 patients (60%) at 20 years and 28 of 38 (74%) at 30 years. Weight loss and glycaemic control were maintained throughout the follow-up; mean % total weight loss was 32.8 (range 14.1-50.0) at 1 year and 37.7 (range 16.7-64.8) at 30 years. One patient presented with recurrence of type 2 diabetes at 20 and 30 years; there were no patients with new-onset type 2 diabetes.

CONCLUSION

Biliopancreatic diversion leads to good and sustained weight maintenance up to 30 years with low perioperative risk, but at the cost of a high long-term prevalence of nutritional complications.