Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 26, 2026
Sleeve Gastrectomy in Mice using Surgical Clips
Published on: November 14, 2020
Effect of bariatric surgery on heart failure
Marcela Rodriguez Flores1, Carlos Aguilar Salinas1, Marie-Eve Piché2,3
1a Endocrinology Department , Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición "Salvador Zubirán" , Mexico.
Insights
Obesity significantly increases heart failure risk. Bariatric surgery shows promise in improving cardiac function for severely obese patients with heart failure, unlike modest weight loss.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Obesity Medicine
- Cardiomyopathy Research
Background:
- Obesity is a major risk factor for heart failure (HF), impacting cardiovascular health across younger populations.
- Adipose tissue influences cardiac function through insulin resistance, adipokine signaling, and inflammation, potentially causing cardiomyopathy.
- Current therapeutic strategies lack a single obesity-related pathway to effectively ameliorate cardiomyopathy in obese patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the therapeutic landscape for cardiomyopathy in obese patients.
- To evaluate the impact of weight loss interventions, including bariatric surgery, on heart failure outcomes in severe obesity.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on obesity, heart failure, and weight loss interventions.
- Analysis of observational studies and case reports concerning bariatric surgery in severely obese patients with HFpEF and HFrEF.
- Consideration of bariatric surgery as a rescue treatment and bridge to heart transplantation.
Main Results:
- Limited evidence supports long-term benefits of non-surgical weight loss on HF outcomes.
- Observational studies indicate bariatric surgery improves cardiac structure and function in severely obese patients with HFpEF and HFrEF.
- Positive outcomes reported for bariatric surgery as rescue treatment in severe obesity and HF, including as a bridge to transplantation.
Conclusions:
- The rising prevalence of obesity necessitates interventions to mitigate cardiac damage.
- Bariatric surgery is a viable option for reducing morbidity associated with heart failure in severely obese adults.
- Further research is needed to identify and develop targeted obesity-related pathways for cardiomyopathy treatment.
Introduction:
Obesity increases the risk of heart failure (HF), which continues to be a significant proportion of all cardiovascular diseases and affects increasingly younger populations. The cross-talk between adipose and the heart involves insulin resistance, adipokine signaling and inflammation, with the capacity of adipose tissue to mediate hemodynamic signals, promoting progressive cardiomyopathy. Areas covered: From a therapeutic perspective, there is not yet a single obesity-related pathway that when addressed, can ameliorate cardiomyopathy in obese patients and this is a matter of ongoing research. There is poor evidence of the beneficial long-term effect of small nonsurgical intentional weight loss on HF outcomes, in contrast to the field of HF accompanying severe obesity where observational studies have shown that bariatric surgery is associated with improved cardiac structure/function in severely obese patients with HF and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) as well as with improved cardiac structure/function in those with HF and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Few studies report positive outcomes in subjects with obesity and HF, both severe, who underwent bariatric surgery as a rescue treatment, including bridge to heart transplantation. Expert commentary: The fast growing prevalence of obesity will continue to require the development of appropriate interventions directed at controlling or slowing pathways of cardiac damage in these patients, but at present, bariatric surgery should be considered an option to try to decrease morbidity associated with HF in severely obese adults.
Related Concept Videos
01:22Heart Failure Drugs: β-Blockers
01:17Pathophysiology of Heart Failure
01:30Heart Failure VII: Nursing Interventions
01:30Heart Failure V: Medical Management
01:29Heart Failure II: Pathophysiology
01:27Heart Failure I: Introduction