Two studies link weight-loss surgery with longer lifespan

Here is a reason to smile for obese patients who underwent weight-loss surgery. Two major studies on Thursday revealed that losing weight through stomach surgery can significantly reduce severely obese patients' risk for early death.

The two studies, one led by a team of US researchers from the University of Utah School of Medicine and LDS Hospital and another conducted by Swedish researchers from Gothenburg University, have linked the gastric bypass surgery with longer life span, providing long-awaited evidence that bariatric surgery saves lives.

Gastric bypass surgery (GBS) is a group of analogous operative procedures used to treat morose chubbiness, a condition which arises from severe gathering of surplus weight as fatty tissue, and the follow-on health problems which occur. Bariatric surgery is the surgical treatment of morbid obesity, and includes the gastric bypass procedures as one of numerous classes of operations.

The findings of both the studies were reported in the August 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

To reach their conclusion, the researchers in the U.S. study included 15,850 severely obese people, half of whom underwent gastric bypass surgery to shed their weight. After a 14-year follow up, they observed that the mortality rate from coronary heart disease was 56 percent lower in those who opted for gastric bypass surgery than in the non-surgery (control) group.

According to the study's lead author Ted D. Adams, Ph.D., M.P.H., in the surgery group diabetes mortality was improved by 92 percent and cancer by 60 percent compared to similarly heavy people who didn't had operation.

The American team concluded that death from any cause dropped 40 percent for those who underwent gastric bypass surgery than those who did not, and estimated that 136 lives were saved for every 10,000 surgeries performed.

"This certainly demonstrates that those who have the surgery have improved mortality overall," says Adams.

In the Swedish study of more than 4,000 obese people, the researchers found that death rates fell by 29 percent for those who had gastric bypass or lap band surgeries compared to those who did not had surgery.

After tracking the very obese adults (BMIs over 34) for an average of 11 years, the researchers in Sweden found that the surgery patients, though, had a slightly higher risk of death from non-disease causes, such as accidents and suicides, but they were much less likely to die from heart disease, cancer or diabetes than non-surgery group.

During the follow-up after surgery, there were 101 deaths in the surgery group compared with 129 in the control group, the scientists estimated.

Although the two new studies have linked the bypass surgery to a reduction in overall mortality, but the surgery is known to be infected with a number of other side effects. The surgery though guarantees 60-85% loss in body weight, but it causes complications like anastamotic leakage, anastamotic stricture, dumping syndrome and nutritional deficiencies like Hypoparathyroidism, beri beri, etc.

The current studies indirectly throws light on the fact that obesity is one of the major reasons for public health crises in the industrialized world. More than 60% of adult Americans are overweight, 23.9% are obese and 3% are extremely obese. Being overweight can lead to a heap of acute problems, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer, which can even be life threatening.

The two new studies come two months after a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine found that people who undergo gastric bypass, get drunk faster and take longer time to get sober.

Presented by lead author Judith Hagedorn, a medical student at Stanford University on June 14th at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, in San Diego, the research claimed to have found a link between bypass surgery and faster alcohol absorption.

After an alcohol breath analysis, the researchers found that the bypass patients took longer to sober down. While the controlled subjects took an average of 72 minutes, the former took 108 minutes to get back to zero.