Weight-Loss Surgery Benefits
MedPage Today, 20th April 2009
It is well known that obese patients who undergo weight-loss surgery benefit not only from losing weight, but their health issues improve significantly.
What’s interesting, even if some patients remain obese, their health problems get better. This argument was confirmed by a study carried on 625 obese patients. All those patients had a gastric bypass surgery and the researches carried out six years after the operation showed that most health problems improved significantly. They were: dyslipidemia, joint pain, sleep apnea, blood glucose, hypertension and gastroesophageal reflux. The study was published in the April “Archives of Surgery”.
Another interesting information is that even though some patients remain obese after the surgery, they still experience better quality of life and health improvements. That shows that weight-loss surgery is not only about weight-loss but has also important medical reasons.
In the study, all patients had the weight-loss surgery between 1999 and 2006. 492 patients had BMI between 34 to 49.9, 133 patients’ BMI was from 50 onwards and there were also 24 morbidly obese patients of BMI of 60.
The group of morbidly obese patients lost a maximum 15 BMI units. Six years after the procedure those patients managed to hold the loss of 13 BMI units.
The group of superobese patients managed to lose 21 BMI units compared to the 17 BMI units after six years after the surgery.
Reports say, most patients did very well in terms of weight-loss. The maximal weight-loss for all patients was obtained after 18 months after the operation. Superobese patients lost 60% of their excess weight whereas morbidly obese patients - 73%.
Six years after the surgery morbidly obese patients managed to maintain the loss of 60% of their excess weight-loss and the other group of patients – 55%.
About 20% of patients who were superobese before the surgery, still had their BMI of 40 six years after the procedure. What’s interesting, though, the majority of patients showed “durable improvement or complete resolution of comorbid conditions”.
At least 75% of patients in each category showed improvements. This lead to better control of existing health issues with the same or reduced medication, or even resolution of existing problems.
95% of patients showed improvements or resolution of sleep apnea.
Worsening of the health condition was unusual. 10% of patients had poorer blood pressure and further 5% showed worsening of joint pain and reflux disease.
Dr. Suter and other doctors who carried the researches said that patients showed “important improvements in comorbid conditions even though they remained clinically obese, even morbidly obese”.
“Weight loss or residual BMI is not all that matters, and all aspects of the results of bariatric surgery must be evaluated to draw meaningful conclusions about the effectiveness of a given bariatric operation,” they wrote.
