Bariatric surgery may reduce risk of heart failure

Image for representational purpose only

Zee Media Bureau

London: A new research has found that obese individuals who undergo bariatric surgery for weight loss may have significantly decreased the risk of heart failure.

Bariatric surgery for weight loss is done by reducing the size of the stomach with a gastric band or through removal of a portion of the stomach or by resecting and re-routing the small intestine to a small stomach pouch.

As per research, participants in the study who underwent bariatric surgery had nearly 50 per cent lower risk of heart failure.

The patients in the bariatric surgery group had fewer incidences of atrial fibrillation, diabetes and hypertension, known risk factors for heart failure.

Further, the bariatric surgery group lost more weight than those in the intensive lifestyle modification programme.

Johan Sundstrom, Professor at Uppsala University in Sweden said, "Our study shows an association between obesity and heart failure and offers support for efforts to prevent and treat obesity aggressively, including the use of bariatric surgery".

The research team had compared 25,804 bariatric surgery patients in a Scandinavian obesity surgery registry to 13,701 Swedish nationwide registry patients for the study who used an intensive structured lifestyle-modification programme.

The results of the preliminary research was presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016 in Louisiana, recently.