Good Results For Less Invasive Obesity Surgery In Small Study

In the 1980s, an older version of the study procedure, called truncal vagotomy, was found to reduce weight in patients that underwent the procedure to treat their ulcers (the same nerve pathway controls stomach acid). It never took off for weight loss, however, because surgery at the time was used only for the most severe cases, and the open-abdomen version used then was not that much less invasive then more efficacious bariatric surgeries just stepping into the limelight (e.g. gastric bypass). Obesity was not taken as seriously then, and vagotomy was set aside until recent technical innovations, and the fact that 15 million Americans are now morbidly obese, rekindled interest. In addition, surgery for weight loss has become more popular, with 10 times as many procedures performed in 2005 as in 1998.

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and at the University of California at San Francisco, together enrolled 30 obese patients for the current study, the first to specifically examine the effectiveness of laparoscopic vagotomy for the treatment of obesity.By the time of the meeting, just 11 patients had completed a six-month post-surgery follow-up period, but early results were strong enough to be included in an ASBS plenary session titled “Emerging Medicine/Research.” The study found that 10 of the 11 patients responded to the procedure and that they lost an average of 18.4 percent (Range 7.0 to 44.1) of their excess body weight. These results are in line with the results of older, ulcer treatment studies, which found about 20 percent excess weight loss.

Current bariatric (weight-reducing) treatments include surgical procedures like “lap-band” and gastric bypass and drugs like sibutramine (Meridia) and orlistat (Xenical). A third, much-touted experimental drug, rimonabant (Acomplia), just failed to receive the recommendation of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel because of reports that it increases suicidal thoughts. Even approved drugs, however, are meant for short-term treatment only and are of limited use to severely obese patients. Current surgical options, while bringing about higher percentage weight loss (30 to 50 percent in first six months), may involve implants that breakdown over time or require a month of painful recovery time.

“More treatment options are clearly needed as this epidemic continues to grow, options that can be mixed and matched for better effect,” said Thad J. Boss, M.D., assistant professor for General Surgery within the Department of Surgery at the Medical Center in Rochester, a surgeon within the Bariatric Surgery Center at Highland Hospital and a principal investigator for the study. “Our study confirms that laparoscopic vagotomy is a very quick, safe and effective treatment for obese patients, especially for those whose weight gain is just getting to the point where it’s driving other diseases.”

Joining Boss as authors from the Medical Center were Thadeus L. Trus, M.D., associate professor of Surgery within the Minimally Invasive Surgery Program, and Jeffrey H. Peters, M.D., Chair of the Department of Surgery. The lead author for the study, also published in the May-June edition of the ASBS journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, was Robert H. Lustig, M.D., professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at UCSF. Also leading the study from UCSF was Marco G. Patti, M.D., associate professor of Surgery in Residence. The work is based on an unrestricted grant from EndoVx Inc., a private medical device company developing a system with the goal of making outpatient vagotomy easier on patients.