▲(from the left) Professor Moon-Won Yoo and Professor Chang Seok Ko

On a recent study performed by AMC research team, laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) showed favorable surgical outcomes with few postoperative complications.

Among bariatric surgeries, laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is the most common procedure that induces weight loss by eliminating the greater curvature of the stomach which leaves behind a narrow gastric tube. AMC team led by Professor Moon-Won Yoo and Professor Chang Seok Ko of the Division of Stomach Surgery analyzed 50 patients with morbid obesity, an average body mass index (BMI) of 37 or higher, who underwent LSG between November 2018 and April 2020. Patients showed few postoperative complications such as bleeding or fistula. In particular, no special complications were found in patients with high-risk factors requiring intensive management such as dilated cardiomyopathy and end-stage renal disease.

Meanwhile, 25 patients who completed 6 months of follow-up after surgery had seen decreases in mean body weight from around 110kg to 87kg and mean BMI from 38.9 to 30.8. Also, the mean EWL, an index that evaluates the extent of weight loss exceeding the weight corresponding to BMI 25, increased over 60%.

Professor Moon-Won Yoo, the director of Multidisciplinary Metabolic and Bariatric Care Center, said, "The number of patients with morbid obesity is increasing, and we are able to treat those patients more safely and effectively based on our world-leading gastrectomy experience." The results of this study were recently published in the ‘Journal of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.’