Introduction Sleeve gastrectomy has become an accepted and popular bariatric procedure world wide. Weight loss is achieved through restrictive and endocrine mechanisms. We aimed to evaluate the efficiency of excess weight loss by sleeve gastrectomy and to compare it to other bariatric procedures.

Methods We searched the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Pubmed for studies assessing the efficiency of sleeve gastrectomy. Strict inclusion criteria and thorough appraisal of the reviews was required to ensure comparability of the included papers.

Results Our dataset comprised of individual data on 1845 patients from 27 different studies. The median difference in excess body weight loss across the 27 studies which reported weight loss was a significant difference of 56.2% (range 33–85). The mean mortality rate reported from the studies was 0.16%. The major postoperative complication rate ranged from 0% to 23.8%.

Conclusion From the data we have gathered it may be reasonable to conclude that sleeve gastrectomy is an efficient procedure which achieves comparable if not better excess weight loss to both gastric bypass and banding. It may be achieved safely and has similar complication rates to other bariatric procedures. However there is currently little data assessing long term outcomes of the procedure.

Competing interests None declared.