Gastric bypass lowers death risk for severely obese

Severely obese people who undergo gastric bypass surgery cut their risk of death from heart disease, cancer and diabetes significantly, a new study has found.

But they also have a higher risk of dying due to an accident or suicide.

A 14-year study, published in the Aug. 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, tracked 15,850 severely obese patients, half of whom had the surgery and half who did not.

It found that in those who underwent the Roux-en-Y surgery, a form of gastric bypass which includes gastric stapling and intestinal bypass, the mortality rate from heart disease fell by 56 per cent.

The group that underwent the surgery also showed a 60 per cent lower death rate from cancer and a 92 per cent lower death rate from diabetes than the non-surgery group, according to the author of the study, Ted Adams, a professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

The estimated number of lives saved after a mean followup of seven years was 136 per 10,000 gastric bypass surgeries, the report finds.

"Reduction in death by any cause, and disease-specific deaths such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and cancer were significantly reduced in surgery patients compared to the non-surgical control group,"Adams said in a release.

"However, rates of death not caused by disease were shown to be greater in those who underwent the weight-loss surgery when compared to controls."

Deaths not caused by disease, which included accidents and suicide, were 58 per cent higher in the surgery group.

Adams speculates the higher rate of non-disease-related deaths could be the result of unrecognized presurgical mood disorders or post-traumatic stress disorders, which appear to be more common in severely obese patients.