Quality of life following laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding - the Swedish band and the Moorehead-Ardelt questionnaire

Although weight loss is an important immediate outcome after gastric banding operations, quality of life (QOL) has been shown to be an equally important outcome measure. From 1996 to May 2002, 125 consecutive patients have been operated laparoscopically for morbid obesity at our institution with the Swedish Adjustable Gastric Band (SAGB). We compared the Moorehead-Ardelt QOL scores of the first 60 patients, operated at a median of 2 years earlier, with a group consisting of the following consecutive 65 patients, who answered the questionnaire preoperatively. The QOL scores among the operated patients were significantly better (P