Quality of life after the Magenstrasse and Mill procedure for morbid obesity.

BACKGROUND: The authors assessed the quality of life (QOL) of patients after the Magenstrasse and Mill (M-M) procedure for morbid obesity (MO) and compared this with the QOL of MO patients and non-obese controls. METHODS: Personal, postal and telephone questionnaire survey was completed by 82 patients after the M-M procedure, 35 MO patients and 20 normal controls. QOL was assessed by Short Form 36 (SF-36), Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale, and obesity surgery related questionnaire. RESULTS: Physical, social and psychological well-being of patients was substantially better after the M-M compared with their MO counterparts. After the M-M procedure, patients were significantly less depressed but remained anxious when compared with morbidly obese patients. The majority of patients (88%) were pleased with the result of surgery. CONCLUSION: This study provides empirical evidence that the M-M procedure for MO leads to a substantially better QOL.