Questions raised over gastric banding

A visiting Swedish obesity expert has questioned the increasing use of gastric banding in Australia at the same time that University of Adelaide researchers have won new funding to investigate the issue.

Leading obesity expert Professor Stephan Rössner - who gave a free public lecture at the University of Adelaide last month - said the growing trend to perform gastric banding operations in Australia would do little to stop the obesity epidemic.

Gastric banding is the most commonly performed obesity operation in Australia. Last year, 14,000 gastric banding operations were performed compared with 6000 in 2005.

However in Sweden, gastric banding is seen as a "slowly dying dinosaur" that often does not lead to long-term benefits, according to Professor Rössner, Director of the Obesity Unit, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm.

"In my country, 96% of all obesity surgery is done using an alternative procedure known as a gastric bypass, with close to 90% of these done using a minimally invasive approach," Professor Rössner said.

"Gastric bypass is widely believed to be a much more effective alternative to gastric banding because it leads to long-term weight loss."

The Federal Government's Preventative Health Task Force recommended that obesity surgery be offered by public hospitals because of the increasing health problem. This recommendation has widely been interpreted to mean gastric banding, using an adjustable band placed around the upper end of the stomach, instead of gastric bypass.

In the latest round of funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), researcher Dr Nam Nguyen was awarded $428,250 to compare the two different types of obesity surgery.

Based in the NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Nutritional Physiology at the University of Adelaide and the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Dr Nguyen's research may help to determine the most appropriate procedure for obesity surgery.

Professor Rössner's visit to Adelaide was funded by the Northern Communities Health Foundation and supported by the CCRE in Nutritional Physiology, Interventions and Outcomes.