Weight-loss surgery in the UK is linked to significant and sustained weight loss and reduced heart risk, according to a study published last night.
Dr Ian Douglas and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, analysed the outcomes of bariatric surgery carried out on 3,882 patients and compared them to similar patients who did not have surgery. Information was taken from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, the new English NHS observational data and interventional research service.
This showed that bariatric surgery patients lost weight at a rate of about 5kg per month in the first four months, whereas there was no change in the comparison group. This weight loss was sustained for four years.
The surgery also reduced the risk of a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes by 32%, hypertension by 65%, angina by 41%, heart attack by 72%, and obstructive sleep apnea by 45%. There was no link to reduced mortality, but it may have become apparent with a longer follow-up.
Full details appeared last night (22 December) in the journal PLoS Medicine.
The authors say these results "suggest that widening the availability of bariatric surgery in the UK could provide substantial health benefits for people who are very obese".
If these links prove to be causal, "broader use of bariatric surgery in the UK over four years could prevent or resolve roughly 93,000 cases of hypertension and 149,000 cases of type 2 diabetes", they add.
Dr Douglas said: "Obesity is one of the biggest health problems of our generation. Rates of cardiovascular disease, although slowly declining, are still alarmingly high while type 2 diabetes is on the rise, affecting 3.5 million people in Britain.
"People having weight-loss surgery were 70% less likely to have a heart attack, and those with type 2 diabetes were nine times more likely to see major improvements in their diabetes."
Douglas, I. J. et al. Bariatric Surgery in the United Kingdom: A Cohort Study of Weight Loss and Clinical Outcomes in Routine Clinical Care. PLoS Medicine 22 December 2015 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001925 [abstract]
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