Study reviews long-term outcomes of LAGB in African-American and white patients

Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding was part of a team of researchers who questioned the outcomes of Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) across racial differences. Specifically, the long term outcomes of LAGB in African American and white patients in terms of weight loss and resolution of comorbidities.

Study Overview

The researchers, which included NYU Langone bariatric surgeon Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding, looked at data from 959 patients who underwent LAGB between 2001-2004. This data was sorted electronically using propensity score matching analysis to match white and African-American clients based on age, gender, and preoperative body mass index (BMI). This analysis resulted in a total of 65 white patients matched with 58 African-American patients.

The researchers also compared preoperative comorbidities. Comorbidities are conditions that increase a risk of shortened lifespan and often accompany obesity. The comorbidities in this study were diabetes, high blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnea, high levels of cholesterol in the blood and high triglyceride levels. Among these matched patients, Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding and her colleagues looked at the length of the procedure, comorbidity resolution, and percent excess weight loss at the one, two, and three year marks.

Among the patients:

The average age was 37
The average BMI was 47
64% of the African-American patients had preoperative comorbidities
55% of the white patients had preoperative comorbidities

Findings

After studying the pre-operative through 3 year data of these patients the study showed the following:

Both groups experienced, on average, a 50-minute surgery.
Both groups stayed in the hospital for about 23 hours.
The majority of patients in both groups saw major improvement or resolution of one or more comorbidities (77% of African-American patients; 61% of white patients)

The study found that the place where the two groups differed greatly was in the percentage of excess weight loss (%EWL) at all three time marks.

Doctors speculate that metabolic and differences in how African-American and white patients store and use fat as well as body shape could play a role in the disparity in excess weight lost. The study does clearly show that both patient populations experience similar benefits in regard to obesity-related comorbidities.

If you would like to learn more about bariatric surgery and how it can help improve the health of patients struggling with obesity, speak to your doctor and visit the NYU Langone Weight Management Program online.