Comparison of open versus laparoscopic obesity surgery

Bariatric surgery was developed in the mid-1950s with the introduction of jejunoileal bypass, and was expanded in the 1960s with the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (GBP) (1). Recently, there has been an increase in the demand for bariatric surgery and in turn an increase in the number of surgeons interested in learning bariatric surgery. This increase in enthusiasm and growth in the field of bariatric surgery is related, in a large part, to the development of the laparoscopic approach to bariatric surgery. Laparoscopic gastric banding was first reported in 1993 (2). In 1994, the preliminary techniques of both laparoscopic vertical banded gastroplasty and laparoscopic GBP were reported in the literature (3,4). By 2000, even a complex bariatric operation such as the biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch was attempted laparoscopically (5). At the current writing, essentially all commonly performed bariatric operations can be done by the laparoscopic technique.