Long-term effect of ileogastrostomy surgery for morbid obesity on diabetes mellitus and sleep apnea

Interactions between obesity and obstructive sleep apnea: implications for treatment

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) adversely affects multiple organs and systems, with particular relevance to cardiovascular disease. Several conditions associated with OSA, such as high BP, insulin resistance, systemic inflammation, visceral fat deposition, and dyslipidemia, are also present in other conditions closely related to OSA, such as obesity and reduced sleep duration. Weight loss has been accompanied by improvement in characteristics related not only to obesity but to OSA as well, suggesting that weight loss might be a cornerstone of the treatment of both conditions. This review seeks to explore recent developments in understanding the interactions between body weight and OSA. Weight loss helps reduce OSA severity and attenuates the cardiometabolic abnormalities common to both diseases. Nevertheless, weight loss has been hard to achieve and maintain using conservative strategies. Since bariatric surgery has emerged as an alternative treatment of severe or complicated obesity, impressive results have often been seen with respect to sleep apnea severity and cardiometabolic disturbances. However, OSA is a complex condition, and treatment cannot be limited to any single symptom or feature of the disease. Rather, a multidisciplinary and integrated strategy is required to achieve effective and long-lasting therapeutic success.

Vertical gastric resection (sleeve gastrectomy) in a morbidly obese patient with past jejunoileal bypass

Jejunoileal bypass (JIB) is a purely malabsorptive operation, which has been abandoned in the USA and Western Europe due to occasional serious complications. We are still seeing past JIB patients who have become obese again over the years, but are not suffering side-effects of the previous JIB, and are complaining of typical co-morbidities of the obesity. We present a prior JIB patient who underwent a sleeve gastrectomy in 2003 for recurrence of morbid obesity. The patient has been followed for another 4 years with regular laboratory tests, monitoring of weight loss, bone densitometry and possible complications. Selected morbidly obese patients who have undergone past JIB, can be safely treated by a restrictive procedure, sleeve gastrectomy, to accomplish successful weight loss without increasing the risk of possible serious complications.