Restrictive bariatric surgery techniques: evolution and current trends

Bariatric surgery has proved to be more effective than medical therapy in the treatment for obesity. Multiple techniques have been described and can be divided into three main groups: Restrictive surgery, where the main objective is to decrease the volume of caloric intake; malabsortive surgery, where a portion of the absortive circuit is bypassed and thus limiting the caloric absortion; and a combination of both. Among the restrictive techniques, gastroplasty was one of the first procedures described. First horizontal gastroplasty and then vertical banded gastroplasty showed good short-term results but with poor long-term outcomes. These techniques have been gradually abandoned. Adjustable gastric banding is a minimally invasive technique and has the advantage of being reversible. Weight loss is adequate, but less effective than gastric bypass. Postoperative complications are low at short-term, but increase per year at long-term follow-up. Sleeve gastrectomy is an effective weight loss procedure that can be performed safely as a first stage or primary procedure. This results in excellent weight loss and co-morbidity reduction that exceeds, or is comparable to, that of other accepted bariatric procedures. Gastric plicature is a relatively new procedure and has reported good short-term outcomes in weight loss with few short-term complications. However, long-term outcomes are yet to be demonstrated