Impact of age on risk of complications after gastric bypass: A cohort study from the Scandinavian Obesity Surgery Registry (SOReg)

Background

An increasing number of older patients undergo bariatric surgery.

Objective

To define the risk for complications and mortality in relation to age after gastric bypass.

Setting

A national registry-based study.

Methods

Patients (n = 47,660) undergoing gastric bypass between May 2007 and October 2016 and registered in the Scandinavian Obesity Register were included. Risk between age groups was compared by multivariate analysis.

Results

The 30-day follow-up rate was 98.1%. In the entire cohort of patients, any complication within 30 days was demonstrated in 8.4%. For patients aged 50 to 54, 55 to 59, and ≥60 years, this risk was significantly increased to 9.8%, 10.0%, and 10.2%, respectively. Rates of specific surgical complications, such as anastomotic leak, bleeding, and deep infections/abscesses were all significantly increased by 14% to 41% in patients aged 50 to 54 years, with a small additional, albeit not significant, increase in risk in patients of older age. The risk of medical complications (thromboembolic events, cardiovascular, and pulmonary complications) was significantly increased in patients aged ≥60 years. Mortality was .03% in all patients without differences between groups.

Conclusions

In this large data set, rates of complications and mortality after 30 days were low. For many complications, an increased risk was encountered in patients aged ≥50 years. However, rates of complications and mortality were still acceptably low in these age groups. Taking the expected benefits in terms of weight loss and improvements of co-morbidities into consideration, our findings suggest that patients of older age should be considered for surgery after thorough individual risk assessment rather than denied bariatric surgery based solely on a predefined chronologic age limit.