Weight-loss surgery may cut heart disease risks

Paris: In addition to reducing weight, bariatric or metabolic surgery may significantly reduce risk of death from heart complications, says a study.

The surgery also helps patients with Type-2 diabetes and obesity in controlling the condition and in treatment of cardiovascular diseases compared with people undergoing usual medical care, according to the findings.

"The striking results that we saw after metabolic surgery may be related to the patients' substantial and sustained weight loss," said the study's lead author Ali Aminian, a bariatric surgeon at Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, the USA.

"There is a growing body of evidence to suggest beneficial metabolic and hormonal changes after the surgical procedures that are independent of weight loss," Aminian said.

The study compared nearly 2,300 patients who underwent metabolic surgery with 11,500 patients with similar characteristics but under usual medical care.

Patients underwent one of the four types of weight-loss surgery -- gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, adjustable gastric banding, or duodenal switch.

The primary endpoint of the study was an occurrence of death due to one of the five major complications associated with obesity and diabetes -- coronary artery events, cerebrovascular issues, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and kidney disease.

Over an eight-year period, it was found that patients of metabolic surgery were 40 per cent less likely to experience one of these events than those receiving usual medical care.

Patients in the surgical group were 41 per cent less likely to die from any of these causes and had 15 per cent greater weight loss and lower blood sugar levels. They used less medication, including insulin, and less heart medications, like blood pressure and cholesterol therapies, compared with the non-surgery group.

The results were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris, France, and also published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).