Bariatric Surgery Reduces Heart Disease Instances in Patients
New research indicates that severely obese individuals that undergo gastric bypass surgery can see heart abnormalities related to obesity to become stabile or possibly partially reversed.
Dr. Sheldon Litwin, MD and Chief of Cardiology at the Medical College of Georgia believe that both cardiac function and size became more normal in patients that underwent a gastric bypass surgery. These results were easy to see when studies followed the patients two years after the original surgery was performed.
Individuals that are severely obese are known to experience a condition called cardiac remodeling, which is an adverse heart condition. This results in the left ventricle and the left atrium of the heart to enlarge. The left atrium typically receives blood that is oxygen rich from the lungs and then begins to pump it through the left ventricle and out into the body from there. If this left ventricle becomes too large and thick, the patient can suffer an inability to exercise. This in turn increases the risk of abnormal heart rhythm, also called atrial fibrillation and will then increase the risk of stroke for the patient.
A recent study involved 423 patients with an average age of 42 years who had bariatric surgery and 733 patients with an average age of 46 years that did not have surgery. All of the patients that had surgery underwent Roux-en-Y procedures. The surgery essentially creates a smaller stomach area at the top and connects it to the middle of the small intestine. This bypasses the small intestine. The patient eats less and also absorbs fewer nutrients and calories from the food that they take in.
Patients where revisited after two years and were found to have a BMI reduced by 15.4. The non-surgical group reduces their BMI by only 0.03. The individuals that lost the weight due to the surgery were found to have a reduced left ventricular mass. The let atrial volume for the surgical patients was unchanged while it increased in patients that did not participate in the surgery. These surgical patients also had improvements in blood pressure, bad cholesterol levels, heart rate, and improved insulin resistance.
The results indicate that patients with heart disease indicators had good improvement after they underwent weight loss surgery. This means that surgery for weight loss may pose many other benefits for good health in patients, other than just the weight loss itself. Patients may be able to reverse or reduce potentially lethal ailments with the help of a successful weight loss surgery in place. This is another factor that is going to provide patients with potential candidacy for such weight loss surgery options. Patients may be able to find other good health options by having weight loss surgery.
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