Key result
Bariatric surgery reduces absolute cardiorespiratory fitness short-term but improves weight-adjusted fitness in adults with obesity.
Why the study?
Although bariatric surgery effectively reduces body weight, its impact on cardiorespiratory fitness remains unclear.
Does bariatric surgery improve cardiorespiratory fitness in adults with obesity?
Meta-Analysis (n=312)
Does bariatric surgery improve cardiorespiratory fitness in adults with obesity?
Effect estimate: ES -0.539 (95% CI -0.708, -0.369)
p-value: p=<0.001
Bariatric surgery reduces absolute cardiorespiratory fitness in the short term, but significantly improves fitness relative to body weight due to massive weight loss.
Clinicians should monitor absolute cardiorespiratory fitness after bariatric surgery; extends evidence that relative fitness improves markedly with weight loss in obesity.
Summary Although bariatric surgery (BS) is recognized as an effective strategy for body weight loss, its impact on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is still unclear. We aimed to examine postoperative changes in CRF (VO 2max/peak ) and its relationship with weight loss among adults undergoing BS. We systematically searched the WoS, PubMed, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases. Observational and intervention studies were selected reporting the presurgery and postsurgery CRF, measured by breath‐by‐breath VO 2 or its estimation. Eleven articles (312 patients) revealed that BS leads to a reduction in absolute VO 2max/peak in the short term (effect size, ES = −0.539; 95%CI = −0.708, −0.369; p < 0.001), and those patients who suffered a more significant decrease in BMI after BS also had a greater loss of absolute VO 2max/peak . However, VO 2max/peak relative to body weight increased after surgery (ES = 0.658; 95%CI = 0.473, 0.842; p < 0.001). An insufficient number of studies were found investigating medium and long‐term changes in CRF after BS. This study provides moderate‐quality evidence that the weight loss induced by BS can reduce CRF in the short term, which represents a therapeutic target to optimize BS outcomes. More high‐quality studies are needed to evaluate the impact of BS on VO 2max/peak in the short, medium, and long term including normalized values for fat‐free mass.
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Ibacache‐Saavedra et al. (2021) conducted a meta-analysis in Obesity (n=312). Bariatric surgery vs. Pre-surgery baseline was evaluated on Absolute VO2max/peak (ES -0.539, 95% CI -0.708, -0.369, p=<0.001). Bariatric surgery significantly reduced absolute cardiorespiratory fitness in the short term (ES -0.539) but increased cardiorespiratory fitness relative to body weight (ES 0.658) in adults with obesity.
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