Heart Disease: Could Weight Loss Surgery Lower Risk?

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Weight loss surgery, especially laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), may help reduce coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, according to new research presented at the 35th American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) Annual Meeting at ObesityWeek 2018.¹

These findings have important implications for CHD risk reduction, as obesity is known to be a key modifiable risk factor for CHD—the leading cause of death among Americans.

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“Our study shows bariatric surgery has a significant and unparalleled effect on the known risk factors for coronary heart disease in patients after 1 year,” said study co-author Emanuele Lo Menzo, MD, PhD, FASMBS, associate professor of surgery and chair of research at the Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston.²

“No other treatment, in such a relatively short period of time, can result in such significant weight loss, improvements in high blood pressure and resolution of type 2 diabetes. The key, however, is for patients to continue to have a healthy diet and exercise well after surgery to maintain their heart benefits,” he added.²

For their study, Dr Lo Menzo and colleagues retrospectively assessed all patients aged 30 to 74 years without previous CHD who underwent bariatric surgery between 2010 and 2016 (N = 1330).

A total of 225 (16.9%) patients had all variables necessary to calculate CHD risk score. Findings from the study showed that, among these patients, all major metabolic parameters had improved within 12 months post-surgery.

At 12-month follow-up, surgical patients had achieved a mean percentage of estimated body mass index loss of 69.07%, as well as a percentage of total weight loss of 26.65%.

Women experienced a 2.71% absolute risk reduction (ARR), and men experienced an ARR of 5.4%, corresponding to relative risk reductions or 42.01% and 38.82%, respectively. The researchers noted that CHD risk prior to surgery was approximately 8.87% in this cohort, which is 8 times higher than the ideal risk.

Improvements in CHD risk were found to be significant after LSG and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

—Christina Vogt

References:

1. Gutierrez Blanco D, Romero Funes D, Milla Matute C, et al. Can surgical weight loss reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease? Paper presented at: American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery Annual Meeting at ObesityWeek 2018; November 11-15, 2018; Nashville, TN.

2. Weight loss surgery reduces risk of coronary heart disease by 40 percent [press release]. Nashville, TN. American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery. November 14, 2018. Accessed on November 14, 2018.