gastric bypass

This type of intervention could offer an alternative for people who don't want to undergo more invasive treatments such as gastric bypass surgery, or people who don't respond well to weight-loss drugs, the researchers say.

The ETH Zurich researchers analysed fat tissue biopsies from formerly overweight people who had undergone stomach reduction or gastric bypass surgery.

Subjects were assigned to either Roux-en-Y gastric bypass with medical therapy or medial therapy alone and the primary outcome was reduction of at least 30% antihypertensive medications while maintaining blood pressure levels less than 140/90 mmHg at five years.

In an accompanying editorial comment, Michael Hall, MD, MSc, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said the study provides important long-term data on the benefits of gastric bypass on weight loss and blood pressure control, but questions remain.

The two most common obesity surgeries -- gastric bypass and gastric sleeve -- have few short-term complications and are equivalent in that sense.