Bariatric Surgery Could Eliminate Need for BP Control Medications
Blood pressure could successfully be controlled with bariatric surgery, eliminating the need for medication in patients with obesity, according to the results of a recent study.
Although recent research has investigated the effects of bariatric surgery on metabolic and diabetes resolution, little data is available on its effects on hypertension.
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The researchers included 100 patients with hypertension and body mass index between 30.0 and 39.9 kg/m2. The patients were randomly assigned to either Roux-en-Y gastric bypass plus medical therapy or medical therapy alone.
Overall, 96% of the patients completed follow-up. Within 30 days, reduction of 30% or more of the total number of antihypertensive medications while maintaining controlled blood pressure occurred in 41 of 49 (83.7%) patients in the gastric bypass group and 6 of the 47 (12.8%) patients in the control group. Within a year, 51% of the gastric bypass group showed remission and required no medication, while no participants in the medical therapy group achieved remission.
Patients in the gastric bypass group lost, on average, 29% of their body weight, compared with less than 1% in the medical therapy group. After one year, 33% of patients in the bypass group normalized their blood pressure to less than 120 mm Hg, and 69% did so without medication, while 26% of those in the medical therapy group achieved normalized blood pressure with an average of 2.8 medications per patient.
“Bariatric surgery represents an effective strategy for blood pressure control in a broad population of patients with obesity and hypertension,” the researchers concluded.
—Michael Potts
Reference:
Schiavon CA, Bersch-Ferreira AC, Santucci EV, et al. effects of bariatric surgery in obese patients with hypertension: the GATEWAY randomized trial (gastric bypass to treat obese patients with steady hypertension). Circulation. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032130.