Blood Group and Response to Bariatric Surgery in Morbidly Obese Patients: A Retrospective Study in Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

To explore the relationship between the blood group of patients and their response to bariatric surgery and to identify predictors of better outcomes. This was a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of patients who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy for morbid obesity between 2014 and 2020 at King Saud University Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This study included 1434 individuals. The mean change in BMI (pre- versus post-BMI) differed statistically significantly between blood groups (p ≤ 0.01). The greatest drop in body weight was seen in individuals with the AB-negative blood type (56.0 (21.4) kg), which corresponds to the greatest percentage of reduction from baseline (47.7% (14.8)). The mean BMI of the patients decreased by 34.7% (9.2) from a mean pre-operation BMI of 45.5 (8.4) kg/m2 to 29.7 (6.1) kg/m2 (p ≤ 0.001). After laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, male patients and those with the B-negative blood type are more likely to see a greater BMI reduction (pre-operation compared to post-operation) (p ≤ 0.05). For morbidly obese patients, laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy demonstrated promising weight loss outcomes. Blood groups may be able to predict the success rate of bariatric surgery in morbidly obese patients.