Weight loss surgery is known to help seriously obese permitting and decreasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease and other diseases related to obesity. Now, two reference studies show that surgery also saves lives.
In a study, the deaths decreased by more than 90% of diabetes and 50% of heart disease in severely obese people who had weight loss surgery compared to those who do not.
In separate research, weight loss surgery was associated with a 29% reduction in deaths during an average follow-up of 10 years, compared to those who had no weight loss surgery.
Both studies are published in the August 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Long-time obesity researcher George Bray, MD, from the State University of Louisiana, tells WebMD that the new research provides the important "missing link" showing that weight loss surgery reduces mortality.
Weight loss surgery, says Bray, "is associated with a dramatic reduction in diabetes and other diseases associated with obesity, so it is the reason to positively impact survival. But there is a question about it, and some studies even suggested the opposite. "
Not Eating Weight Loss - Weight Loss Surgery Saves Lives
In the larger of both studies, about 8,000 patients with gastric bypass and 8,000 people who had no weight loss surgery combined by sex, age and weight were followed by an average of seven years.
Utah University, the Medical School, the researchers reported a general reduction of 40% in the deaths among surgery patients compared to patients who did not have weight loss surgery. Patient surgery deaths decreased 92% of diabetes, 56% cardiovascular disease and 60% cancer.Researcher Ted D. Adams, PhD, MPH, tells WebMD that the difference in cancer mortality was very surprising.
"We do not anticipate such a large reduction in cancer deaths in such a short time, and we are not really sure what to do," he says, adding that his research team is currently exploring the issue. / p>.There was still another surprise in the discoveries. Although patients with surgery had a lower mortgage rate of diabetes, cancer and other diseases than patients without fragmentation, mortality rates of other causes that other diseases, such as accidents and suicide, were higher.
Patients who had weight loss surgery had meaningless mortality rates that were 58% larger than people who had no surgery.
The study offered few clues about the reason for this. But several previous studies have suggested a link between weight loss surgery and an increase in drug and alcohol abuse and other risk behaviors.
Adams says that the discoveries highlight the need for better ways to identify psychological "red" flags in patients who are considering weight loss surgery and to assess mental state after surgery.
Ten years later, weight loss among surgery patients had the average of 14% to 25%, compared with less than 2% among patients without surgery.
During follow-up, 129 deaths occurred among patients without surgery, compared with 101 deaths between the surgical group. The number of heart attack deaths was lower in the surgery group (13 vs. 25), as well as cancer deaths (29 vs. 47).
Claude Bouchard, PhD researcher, from the Biomedical Research Center of Louisiana University of State, tells WebMD that both studies prove that weight loss surgery is a rescue option for seriously obese patients.Bray agrees that weight loss surgery can prove to be a more important weapon in the battle against obesity and disease related to obesity than any previous intervention.
But it says that the benefits and risks of modern approaches to weight loss surgery should be examined before the indications for surgery are expanded.
He is asking for a national conference to solve the subject. The last of these conferences was held in 1991.
"Much has happened since then, he says." Laparoscopic surgery has everything, but replaced open surgery - and surgical mortality rates decreased as a result. But there are not answered questions about which patients will benefit more from this surgery. "
