Effect of bariatric and metabolic surgery on rheumatoid arthritis outcomes: A systematic review

Obesity is a growing and debilitating epidemic worldwide that is associated with an increased inflammation. It is often linked to rheumatic diseases and may impact negatively their natural history. The use of bariatric and metabolic surgery (BMS) has increased thanks to its positive effect on major comorbidities like diabetes type 2. This systematic review provides the most up-to-date published literature regarding the effect of BMS on outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis.

This systematic review followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews guidelines. Original articles from Pubmed, Embase and Cochrane, published until June 16th 2023, and tackling the effect of BMS on disease outcomes in patients with RA were included.

Three studies met the inclusion criteria. They were published between 2015 and 2022. The total number of RA patients was 33193 and 6700 of them underwent BMS. Compared to non-surgical patients, weight loss after BMS was associated with lower disease activity outcomes at 12 months (p<0.05). Similarly, prior BMS in RA patients was significantly associated with reduced odds ratios for all the morbidities and in-hospital mortality compared with no prior BMS (36.5% vs 54.6%, OR = 0.45, 95% CI (0.42, 0.48), p< 0.001) and (0.4% vs 0.9%, OR = 0.41, 95% CI (0.27-0.61), p < 0.001) respectively.

To conclude, published data indicate that BMS seems a promising alternative in reducing RA disease activity as well as morbidity and mortality in patients with obesity.