title: Safety and effectiveness of bariatric surgery: Roux-en-y gastric bypass is superior to gastric banding in the management of morbidly obese patients: a response.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The recent article by Guller, Klein, Hagen was reviewed and discussed by the authors of this response to critically analyze the validity of the conclusions, at a time when patients and providers depend on peer reviewed data to guide their health care choices. The authors of this response all have high volume bariatric surgery practices encompassing experience with both gastric bypass and gastric banding, and have made significant contributions to the peer reviewed literature. We examined the assumptions of the paper, reviewed the main articles cited, provided more evidence from articles that were included in the materials and methods of the paper, but not cited, and challenge the conclusion that Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is superior to gastric banding.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The paper by Guller et al was subject to significant bias. The authors did not demonstrate an understanding of gastric banding, selectively included data with unfavorable results towards gastric banding, did not provide equal critique to the literature on gastric bypass, and deliberately excluded much of the favorable data on gastric banding.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The paper's conclusion that gastric bypass is the procedure of choice is biased, unsubstantiated, not supported by the current literature and represents a disservice to the scientific and health care community.
authors.affiliation: Dept, of Surgery, Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla, CA, USA. sbhoyrul@ljsurgical.com.
authors.forename: Sunil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhoyrul
authors.forename: John
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authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.forename: George
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authors.lastname: Fielding
authors.forename: Christine
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authors.lastname: Ren Fielding
authors.forename: Emma
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authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.forename: Lee
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authors.lastname: Grossbard
authors.forename: Vafa
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authors.lastname: Shayani
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authors.lastname: Bessler
authors.forename: David
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authors.lastname: Voellinger
authors.forename: Helmuth
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authors.lastname: Billy
authors.forename: Robert
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authors.lastname: Cywes
authors.forename: Timothy B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Ehrlich
authors.forename: Daniel B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Brad M
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authors.lastname: Watkins
authors.forename: Jaime
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authors.lastname: Ponce
authors.forename: Matthew
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authors.lastname: Brengman
authors.forename: Gregory
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authors.lastname: Schroder