Omentectomy in Addition to Bariatric Surgery—a 5-Year Follow-up

Abstract

Aim: Omentectomy in addition to bariatric surgery has been suggested to improve metabolic outcome but short-term (6–24 months) studies have refuted this notion. We investigated whether there was any long-term impact of omentectomy. Methods: Forty-nine obese women underwent gastric bypass surgery and were randomly assigned to omentectomy (n = 26) or not (n = 23). They were re-examined after 5 years including dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry for body composition, blood pressure and blood sampling. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups at baseline (p = 0.07–0.93) or 5 years post-operatively (p = 0.15–0.93) regarding weight, BMI, body composition, HOMA-IR, plasma cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, or triglycerides. Conclusion: In agreement with previous shorter studies, removal of the greater omentum in addition to GBP is not associated with metabolic benefits after long-term follow-up.