Is weight loss more successful after gastric bypass than gastric banding for obese patients?

Several studies have demonstrated that the short-term weight loss achieved by Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is greater than that achieved by laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding. This notion is supported by Puzziferri et al., who compared the weight loss that these two techniques achieved during the first 2 years after surgery. The real need in this field, however, is for long-term data with >10 years of follow-up, or in the absence of such data, medium-term data with 3-8 years follow-up. The aim of obesity therapy is to achieve sustainable weight loss, yet the published literature on bariatric surgery is dominated by the presence of short-term data. To convince a skeptical community of the value of bariatric surgery, data that reports the medium-to-long-term outcomes of these approaches must be presented with complete follow-up of all patients, or with sufficient statistical power to allow for those lost to follow-up. Only then can a relevant comparison of various bariatric procedures be conducted.