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Back to Surgery Articles
Saturday 8th April, 2006
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Bariatric surgery is now an approved for class
II-III obesity and may decrease risk of heart disease. |
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ATLANTA, GA -- As rates of obesity in America continue to
soar, surgery has become an increasingly popular solution
when diet and exercise regimens fail. Bariatric surgery is
now an approved therapeutic intervention for class II-III
obesity, and may correlate to improved risk for heart
disease.
In a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 55th
Annual Scientific Session, a team of researchers from the Mayo
Clinic in Minnesota evaluated the effect of bariatric surgery on
longterm cardiovascular risk and estimated prevented outcomes.
ACC.06 is the premier cardiovascular medical meeting, bringing
together over 30,000 cardiologists to further breakthroughs in
cardiovascular medicine.
The team completed a historical study between 1990 and 2003 of
197 patients with class II-III obesity who undertook Roux-en-Y
gastric bypass surgery (sometimes referred to as "stomach
stapling"), compared to 163 control patients enrolled in a weight
reduction program. With an average follow-up time of 3.3 years, the
team recorded changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as
cholesterol levels, body mass index (BMI) and diabetes criteria.
Though the team originally estimated a higher 10-year risk for
cardiac events in the surgical group at the start of the study due
to their associated conditions, researchers found at follow-up that
the patients had a much lower risk than the control group for having
a heart complication (18.3 vs. 30 percent). Using the study
parameters and risk models based on previously published data, the
team estimated that for every 100 patients, the surgery would
prevent 16.2 cardiovascular events and 4.1 overall deaths, as
compared to the control group. However, should the number of deaths
during surgery approach 4 percent, the protective effect is limited,
as may be in the case in centers with very low volumes of weight
loss surgeries.
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In reviewing the cardiovascular risk factors calculated during the
study, the team found that at follow-up, the percentage of the
surgery population meeting criteria for diabetes was reduced from 30
percent (59 pts) to 11 percent (19 pts), and also showed reductions
in blood pressure, LDL cholesterol and BMI.
"With an understanding of the very close link between obesity and
cardiovascular risk, we feel confident that a procedure like
bariatric surgery is an effective alternative to current therapies,
which can have a considerable and lasting improvement in cardiac
health," said John Batsis, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic, and lead author
of the study. "For the patients who are eligible for surgery, this
suggests a reduced risk of cardiac events or death."
Sources
The American College of Cardiology.
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