Thomas Goubar1, Chris Goubar1, Doug Fenton-Lee1,2, Louise Rusworth1
The University of Notre Dame Australia, School of Medicine Sydney, Darlinghurst, 2010, NSW, Australia
Bariatric surgery is being increasingly reported in the treatment of obesity and its related comorbid diseases, particularly cardiovascular risk factors such as type 2 diabetes melitus (T2DM). This study aims to characterise trends in the rates of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular risk factors in Australian adults undergoing bariatric surgery, to establish whether evidence reflects practice. The study utilised a state-wide dataset of all hospital admissions in NSW, Australia between 2013 and 2019. There were 46,394 bariatric procedures over the six year study period with a rate of 167.6 procedures per 100,000 population in 2018/19. The majority of patients (77.9%) were female and the mean age was 43.2 (+/- 11.9). The rate of patients with 2 or more cardiovascular risk factors increased over the study period by 63.9% from 353.5/million to 579.3/million population (p < 0.001). The rate of cardiovascular disease in this cohort increased by 62.2% from 55.5/million to 90.0/million population (p < 0.01). The rate of heart failure increased by 178.6% from 1.4/million to 3.9/million (p < 0.01), and the rate of type 2 diabetes mellitus increased by 44.7% from 158.9/million to 230.0/million population (p < 0.001). These results demonstrate that the rates of cardiovascular disease and risk factors have increased amongst the bariatric surgery population, this is in keeping with the known expanding indications for surgical weight loss.