Obesity surgery safe for heart patients

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Given a proper evaluation, obese patients with heart disease can safely go through with weight loss surgery.
Although gastric bypass surgery is not without risk, the weight loss it produces can lead to real health benefits. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic now report on a group for whom such surgery might be thought to pose especial risk - those with heart disease. The comparison involved 52 obese heart patients and 507 patients who did not have heart disease.

None of the patients died in hospital. And the rate of cardiac complications in the heart patient group was not significantly higher than that in the other group. And after two and a half years of follow up, the heart disease group showed a significant drop in body mass index and an improvement in cholesterol profile. This, in itself, would be expected to benefit their health. So, although weight loss surgery should not be undertaken lightly, there is no reason why heart patients should be excluded from it.

Source
Mayo Clinic Proceedings September 2005

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