BS O02 Long-term survival after sleeve gastrectomy versus gastric bypass in a bi-national cohort study

Abstract

Abstract Background Bariatric surgery prolongs life expectancy in severely obese individuals, but it is uncertain which of the two dominating bariatric procedures, sleeve gastrectomy or gastric bypass, offers the best long-term survival. Methods This was a population-based cohort study comparing primary laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy to gastric bypass for obesity in Sweden and Finland between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2020. The risk of all-cause mortality was calculated using multivariable Cox regression, providing hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusted for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, Charlson comorbidity index, country, and calendar year. Results Among 61,503 patients (median age 42 years; 75.4% women), who contributed 415,712 person-years at risk (mean 6.8 person-years), 1,571 (2.6%) died during follow-up. Compared to patients who underwent gastric bypass (n=51,891, 84.4%), the sleeve gastrectomy group (n=9,612, 15.6%) had similar all-cause mortality during the entire study period (HR=0.98, 95% CI 0.81–1.20), but decreased all-cause mortality in more recent years (HR=0.72, 95% CI 0.54–0.97, from 2014 onwards). Diabetes interacted statistically significantly with the type of bariatric surgery, with higher all-cause mortality after sleeve gastrectomy than gastric bypass (HR=1.54, 95% CI 1.06–2.24). Conclusions The overall survival following sleeve gastrectomy seems to compare well with gastric bypass, and may even be better during recent years. A tailored surgical approach in relation to patients’ diabetes status may optimize survival in patients selected for bariatric surgery, i.e. sleeve gastrectomy for non-diabetic patients and gastric bypass for patients with diabetes.