Impact of age, sex and body mass index on outcomes at four years after gastric banding

Adjustable gastric banding for weight reduction in severely obese persons allows reversible individualized restriction during postoperative follow-up. It is unknown whether preoperative age, sex and BMI might modulate treatment outcome. 404 severely obese patients (79% women; age 42 +/- 0.5 years [mean +/- SEM]; BMI 42.1 +/- 0.2 kg/m2) completed 4-year follow-up after banding. Weight loss, complications, and Bariatric Analysis and Reporting Outcome System (BAROS) scores were recorded prospectively. 4 years after banding, younger (50 lost more weight than patients with BMI 50 were less likely than patients with BMI 35-40 or 40-50 to experience gastric complications (10.6%, 18.8%, 23.0%, respectively), but more likely to experience port/tube complications (15.8%, 2.4%, 7.9%, respectively; P