Cici Zhang, MD, Lucy Martinek, MD, Yael Marks, MD, Julio Teixeira, MD. Lenox Hill Hopsital
Introduction: Obesity continues to be a challenging public health dilemma and bariatric surgery remains an effective treatment modality for long-term weight loss. Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) has gained recent popularity for its feasibility and encouraging results. Studies have suggested that women over 65 had inferior outcome due to decreased physiological reserve. However, the post-menopausal population remains a largely unstudied group. The purpose of our study was to determine whether a woman’s menopausal status affects weight loss after undergoing SG.
Methods: A retrospective review of 115 patients undergoing laparoscopic SG from December 2013 through August 2015 was performed. Of these, 18 (15.6%) were post-menopausal and 13 (11.3%) were men. 72 (62%) had 6 week follow up and only 25 (34%) presented for follow up at 6 months. Outcomes of short-term and medium-term weight loss (6 weeks and 6 months) for pre- and post-menopausal women were analyzed.
Results: Our results included total percent weight loss between men and women and also compared pre-menopausal to post-menopausal women. A paired t-test was performed which demonstrated total percent weight loss for men at 6 weeks was 9.66% (+/-2.2%), and 23.5% (+/- 4.13%) at 6 months, which is comparable to previous studies. For pre-menopausal women, 6 week weight loss percentage was 9.1% (+/- 3.14) and 21.1% (+/- 4.18) at 6 months compared to post-menopausal women who lost 10.3% (+/- 3.5) and 22% (+/- 6.65) at 6 weeks and 6 months. The total weight loss for all patients was 9.35% (+/- 3.28) at 6 weeks, 22.3% (+/- 5.83) at 6 months, respectively. A p-value of 0.18 was demonstrated for pre- vs. post-menopausal women at 6 weeks postoperatively.
Conclusion: In our analysis, there was no significant difference in short-term and medium-term total percent weight loss in pre- vs. post-menopausal women who underwent SG. Further studies are required to evaluate long-term weight loss between these two groups, as well as on hormonal effects of SG in the pre- and post- menopausal population.