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.