About Gastric Sleeve Weight Loss

The gastric sleeve operation is the most popular operation for weight loss in this country and throughout the world. The operation is safe and effective, and is associated with high patient satisfaction.

Sleeve gastrectomy outcomes, however, are not uniform. Published studies show a wide variation in outcomes between different patients, different programs, and different surgeons.

In this post I discuss gastric sleeve weight loss outcomes and how they vary between different surgeons and programs. To read more about how weight loss outcomes vary between patients, click here.

Gastric Sleeve Weight Loss – Published Studies

There have been 100s of studies published on gastric sleeve weight loss, by 100s of surgeons, and the results are surprisingly variable. To make sense of all these studies, several authors have published review studies which combine all this data to get a better big view picture.

Fischer et al reviewed 123 published gastric sleeve weight loss studies with a total of 12,129 gastric sleeve patients and found that overall weight loss averaged 56% EWL (excess weight loss) at 1 year, and 64% EWL at 2 years.*

I believe these averages – 56% EWL at 1 year, and 64% EWL at 2 years – are reasonable estimations of industry average weight loss for sleeve gastrectomy, because the data are from many studies by many surgeons, and the overall number of patients is large.*

The Fischer et al review study also reported the variation in average weight loss across the 123 studies. At 1 year after surgery, average weight loss varied from 42% EWL to 78% EWL, and at 2 years, average weight loss varied from 46% EWL to 75% EWL.*

The first point to make about this variation is that it is significant. For a patient who is 100 pounds’ overweight, the difference between 42% EWL and 78% EWL is 36 pounds. For a patient who is 200 pounds’ overweight, this difference amounts to 72 pounds.*

The second point to make about this variation is that it exists almost certainly because of differences between individual surgeons. This is because the main thing that varies between the studies is the surgeon. Different surgeons have different operative techniques and different patient care practices, and these differences translate into differences in weight loss outcomes.*

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** The weight loss statistics in the table above are averages. Individual patients can lose more or less weight than the average.
The weight loss statistics quoted above are from a large review study (n=12,129 patients) on gastric sleeve weight loss by Fischer et al.
Gastric sleeve surgeon Dr. Oliak’s %EWL (excess weight loss) statistics are for all gastric sleeve operations completed 2008-2015 (n=300).

There are several other published review studies that corroborate the Fischer et al results described above.

Gagner et al compiled gastric sleeve weight loss data from 130 surgeons, and 46,133 sleeve gastrectomy operations. This study is a little different than the Fischer study because Gagner compiled data from individual surgeons given to him by the individual surgeons. Fischer et al compiled data extracted from other published studies.

Despite the different methodology, the results of the Gagner study are similar to the results of the Fischer study. Gagner reported average gastric sleeve weight loss for the 130 surgeons to be 55-59% EWL at 1-3 years after surgery (59.3% EWL at 1 year, 59.0% EWL at 2 years, 54.7% EWL at 3 years).*

Individual surgeon data unfortunately was not reported in the Gagner study, but the study did report that the standard deviation for average weight loss across the 130 surgeons was +/- 19%. Standard deviation is a measure of variance around the average, and 19% is a large number. This indicates a large variation in weight loss outcomes between the different surgeons, corroborating Fischer’s findings.*

Long-Term Gastric Sleeve Weight Loss – Published Studies

There are fewer published studies on long-term weight loss after sleeve gastrectomy, so the data are not as robust as for short-term weight loss. Nonetheless, there are a couple good review studies that summarize the available data.

Golzarand et al reviewed 80 published studies and reported that average weight loss at 5 years or more after gastric sleeve surgery is 53% EWL.*

Of note, the intent of the Golzarand study was to compare long-term weight loss outcomes for sleeve gastrectomy, gastric bypass, and gastric banding. The 80 studies reviewed were long-term weight loss studies that reported weight loss data for at least one of these operations. All 80 studies were therefore not gastric sleeve studies.

As an aside, Golzarand reported different long-term weight loss results for the different operations. At 5+ years after surgery weight loss is reported to be 47% EWL for gastric banding, and 63% EWL for gastric bypass.*

Juodeikis et al , in a recent 2017 review study, compiled data from 20 published studies with a total of 2713 gastric sleeve patients, and found overall average weight loss at 5-10 years after surgery to be 56-60% EWL.*

Because there aren’t yet a large number of published studies on long-term weight loss after gastric sleeve surgery, there is not enough data to comment on variation between individual surgeons.

My expectation is that eventually studies will show significant variation in long-term weight loss outcomes between individual surgeons, similar to what the short-term (1-3 years) studies show.*

Conclusions

• Industry average gastric sleeve weight loss is 55-65% EWL at 1-3 years after surgery.*
• Long-term gastric sleeve weight loss averages 50-60% EWL at 5-10 years after surgery.*
• Average weight loss at 1-3 years after surgery is variable between individual surgeons. Some surgeons achieve much better weight loss outcomes than other surgeons.*
• Average weight loss at 5+ years after gastric sleeve surgery is likely variable between individual surgeons, but there are currently not a sufficient number of published studies to prove this.*

Learn More

Learn more about Orange County gastric sleeve surgeon Dr. Oliak and his program at www.OliakCenter.com.

* The weight loss statistics quoted on this page are averages. Individual patients can lose more or less weight than the average..