Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity: Comparison of Gastric Bypass, Sleeve Gastrectomy, and Usual Care

OBJECTIVE To determine which one of the two most common metabolic surgical procedures is associated with greater reduction in risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 13,490 patients including 1,362 Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), 693 sleeve gastrectomy (SG), and 11,435 matched nonsurgical patients with T2DM and obesity who received their care at the Cleveland Clinic (1998–2017) were analyzed, with follow-up through December 2018. With multivariable Cox regression analysis we estimated time to incident extended MACE, defined as first occurrence of coronary artery events, cerebrovascular events, heart failure, nephropathy, atrial fibrillation, and all-cause mortality. RESULTS The cumulative incidence of the primary end point at 5 years was 13.7% (95% CI 11.4–15.9) in the RYGB groups and 24.7% (95% CI 19.0–30.0) in the SG group, with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 0.77 (95% CI 0.60–0.98, P = 0.04). Of the six individual end points, RYGB was associated with a significantly lower cumulative incidence of nephropathy at 5 years compared with SG (2.8% vs. 8.3%, respectively; HR 0.47 [95% CI 0.28–0.79], P = 0.005). Furthermore, RYGB was associated with a greater reduction in body weight, glycated hemoglobin, and use of medications to treat diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Five years after RYGB, patients required more upper endoscopy (45.8% vs. 35.6%, P < 0.001) and abdominal surgical procedures (10.8% vs. 5.4%, P = 0.001) compared with SG. CONCLUSIONS In patients with obesity and T2DM, RYGB may be associated with greater weight loss, better diabetes control, and lower risk of MACE and nephropathy compared with SG.