Bariatric Surgery Tied to Less Medication Use Over 15 or More Years

FRIDAY, May 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Patients undergoing bariatric surgery for obesity use fewer lipid-lowering, cardiovascular, and antidiabetic medications over the long term versus patients with obesity not undergoing surgery, according to a study published online May 24 in JAMA Surgery.

Joonas H. Kauppila, M.D., Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues assessed the long-term postoperative trajectories of medications for hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes following bariatric surgery. The analysis included 26,396 patients with obesity who underwent bariatric surgery with gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy.

The researchers found that the proportion of lipid-lowering medication after bariatric surgery decreased from 20.3 percent at baseline to 12.9 percent after two years and 17.6 percent after 15 years, whereas the proportion of lipid-lowering medication increased in the no-surgery group from 21.0 percent at baseline to 44.6 percent after 15 years. Decreases were seen for cardiovascular medications (60.2 percent of bariatric surgery patients at baseline versus 43.2 percent after two years), but an increase was seen after 15 years (74.6 percent). In the no-surgery group, use increased from 54.4 percent at baseline to 83.3 percent after 15 years. A similar trend was seen for antidiabetic medications (bariatric surgery group: 27.7 percent at baseline, 10.0 percent after two years, and 23.5 percent after 15 years versus 27.7 percent at baseline and 54.2 percent after 15 years for the no-surgery group).

“Undergoing bariatric surgery was associated with a substantial and long-lasting reduction in the use of lipid-lowering and antidiabetic medications compared with no surgery for obesity, while for cardiovascular medications this reduction was only transient,” the authors write.

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