CardioExchange Archive

For the first time, the AHA has offered a qualified endorsement of bariatric surgery. The scientific statement, published in Circulation, states that bariatric surgery is a relatively safe procedure that can lead to long-term weight loss and significantly improve health in appropriately selected obese patients who have been unable to lose weight nonsurgically.

But, said Paul Poirier, the lead author of the statement, in an AHA press release, “it is not an across-the-board endorsement of bariatric surgery for the severely obese. It is a consensus document that provides expert perspective based on the results of recent scientific studies.”

The statement notes that surgical weight loss can “completely reverse established diabetes mellitus in a large percentage of subjects” and results in improvements in lipids, inflammation, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, and cardiac function. The report states that “there is increasing, although not definitive, evidence that bariatric surgery provides a significant survival benefit.”