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Guidelines issued on radiation-induced heart disease
Cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy need to have baseline studies of cardiac function and routine screening for heart disease, according to recommendations from the European Society of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiography published July 16 in the European Heart Journal–Cardiovascular Imaging.
The groups recommend baseline preradiation echocardiography along with a cardiac exam as well as screening for risk factors. An annual cardiac history and physical should be performed to check for new-onset heart problems.
Within 10 years of treatment, 10%-30% of patients who undergo radiation therapy develop radiation-induced heart diseases (RIHD), including chronic pericarditis, myocardial fibrosis, coronary artery disease, aortic calcification, and valve regurgitation or stenosis. The hope of screening is to catch early RIHD, but screening is not currently routine.
"We wrote the expert consensus to raise the alarm that the risks of radiation-induced heart disease should not be ignored. The prevalence ... is increasing because the rate of cancer survival has improved," said Dr. Patrizio Lancellotti, who is a professor of cardiology at the University Hospital of Liège, Belgium, and led the recommendations task force.
Radiotherapy is given in more targeted form and at lower doses than it once was, but "patients are still at increased risk of RIHD, particularly when the heart is in the radiation field. This applies to patients treated for lymphoma, breast cancer, and esophageal cancer. Patients who receive radiotherapy for neck cancer are also at risk because lesions can develop on the carotid artery and increase the risk of stroke," Dr. Lancellotti said in a statement.
Using targeted radiation and alternate radiation fields, with avoidance and shielding of the heart, remain "the most important interventions to prevent" cardiac complications, the authors noted.
The task force advises that high-risk patients without evidence of heart disease on history and physical should have screening echocardiography every 5 years and noninvasive stress testing every 5-10 years; low-risk patients should have screening echocardiography every 10 years. If heart disorders are detected, routine monitoring should include echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, or carotid ultrasound as appropriate.
High-risk patients include those who received radiotherapy at younger ages; those who have cardiovascular risk factors or preexisting heart disease; and those who receive high-dose radiation (greater than 30 Gy), concomitant chemotherapy, radiation without shielding, or anterior or left chest radiation (Eur. Heart J. Cardiovasc. Imaging 2013;14:721-40).
The recommendations are based on an extensive literature review and analysis by Dr. Lancellotti and other specialists.
The authors reported no financial conflicts or outside funding for their work.
Cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy need to have baseline studies of cardiac function and routine screening for heart disease, according to recommendations from the European Society of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiography published July 16 in the European Heart Journal–Cardiovascular Imaging.
The groups recommend baseline preradiation echocardiography along with a cardiac exam as well as screening for risk factors. An annual cardiac history and physical should be performed to check for new-onset heart problems.
Within 10 years of treatment, 10%-30% of patients who undergo radiation therapy develop radiation-induced heart diseases (RIHD), including chronic pericarditis, myocardial fibrosis, coronary artery disease, aortic calcification, and valve regurgitation or stenosis. The hope of screening is to catch early RIHD, but screening is not currently routine.
"We wrote the expert consensus to raise the alarm that the risks of radiation-induced heart disease should not be ignored. The prevalence ... is increasing because the rate of cancer survival has improved," said Dr. Patrizio Lancellotti, who is a professor of cardiology at the University Hospital of Liège, Belgium, and led the recommendations task force.
Radiotherapy is given in more targeted form and at lower doses than it once was, but "patients are still at increased risk of RIHD, particularly when the heart is in the radiation field. This applies to patients treated for lymphoma, breast cancer, and esophageal cancer. Patients who receive radiotherapy for neck cancer are also at risk because lesions can develop on the carotid artery and increase the risk of stroke," Dr. Lancellotti said in a statement.
Using targeted radiation and alternate radiation fields, with avoidance and shielding of the heart, remain "the most important interventions to prevent" cardiac complications, the authors noted.
The task force advises that high-risk patients without evidence of heart disease on history and physical should have screening echocardiography every 5 years and noninvasive stress testing every 5-10 years; low-risk patients should have screening echocardiography every 10 years. If heart disorders are detected, routine monitoring should include echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, or carotid ultrasound as appropriate.
High-risk patients include those who received radiotherapy at younger ages; those who have cardiovascular risk factors or preexisting heart disease; and those who receive high-dose radiation (greater than 30 Gy), concomitant chemotherapy, radiation without shielding, or anterior or left chest radiation (Eur. Heart J. Cardiovasc. Imaging 2013;14:721-40).
The recommendations are based on an extensive literature review and analysis by Dr. Lancellotti and other specialists.
The authors reported no financial conflicts or outside funding for their work.
Cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy need to have baseline studies of cardiac function and routine screening for heart disease, according to recommendations from the European Society of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiography published July 16 in the European Heart Journal–Cardiovascular Imaging.
The groups recommend baseline preradiation echocardiography along with a cardiac exam as well as screening for risk factors. An annual cardiac history and physical should be performed to check for new-onset heart problems.
Within 10 years of treatment, 10%-30% of patients who undergo radiation therapy develop radiation-induced heart diseases (RIHD), including chronic pericarditis, myocardial fibrosis, coronary artery disease, aortic calcification, and valve regurgitation or stenosis. The hope of screening is to catch early RIHD, but screening is not currently routine.
"We wrote the expert consensus to raise the alarm that the risks of radiation-induced heart disease should not be ignored. The prevalence ... is increasing because the rate of cancer survival has improved," said Dr. Patrizio Lancellotti, who is a professor of cardiology at the University Hospital of Liège, Belgium, and led the recommendations task force.
Radiotherapy is given in more targeted form and at lower doses than it once was, but "patients are still at increased risk of RIHD, particularly when the heart is in the radiation field. This applies to patients treated for lymphoma, breast cancer, and esophageal cancer. Patients who receive radiotherapy for neck cancer are also at risk because lesions can develop on the carotid artery and increase the risk of stroke," Dr. Lancellotti said in a statement.
Using targeted radiation and alternate radiation fields, with avoidance and shielding of the heart, remain "the most important interventions to prevent" cardiac complications, the authors noted.
The task force advises that high-risk patients without evidence of heart disease on history and physical should have screening echocardiography every 5 years and noninvasive stress testing every 5-10 years; low-risk patients should have screening echocardiography every 10 years. If heart disorders are detected, routine monitoring should include echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, or carotid ultrasound as appropriate.
High-risk patients include those who received radiotherapy at younger ages; those who have cardiovascular risk factors or preexisting heart disease; and those who receive high-dose radiation (greater than 30 Gy), concomitant chemotherapy, radiation without shielding, or anterior or left chest radiation (Eur. Heart J. Cardiovasc. Imaging 2013;14:721-40).
The recommendations are based on an extensive literature review and analysis by Dr. Lancellotti and other specialists.
The authors reported no financial conflicts or outside funding for their work.
FROM THE EUROPEAN HEART JOURNAL – CARDIOVASCULAR IMAGING
Bariatric surgery advancement spurs guideline update
Weight loss surgery patients should get routine copper supplements along with other vitamins and minerals, according to newly updated bariatric surgery guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the Obesity Society, and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
The groups call for 2 mg/day to offset the potential for surgery to cause a deficiency. Although routine copper screening isn’t necessary after the procedure, copper levels should be assessed and treated as needed in patients with anemia, neutropenia, myeloneuropathy, and impaired wound healing.
The copper recommendations are new since the guidelines were last published in 2008. Other recommendations – there are 74 in all – have been revised to incorporate new advances in weight loss surgery and an improved evidence base. Changes are pointed out where they’ve been made, and the level of evidence cited for each assertion. Pre- and postoperative bariatric surgery checklists have been added as well, to help avoid errors.
"This is actually a very unique collaboration among the internists represented by the endocrinologists and the obesity people and the surgeons. We actually agreed on all these things. The main intent is to assist with clinical decision making," including selecting patients and procedures and perioperative management, said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Mechanick, president-elect of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and director of metabolic support at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
"We scrutinized every recommendation one by one in the context of the new data. In many cases the recommendations changed," he said in an interview.
Another new recommendation is for patients to be followed by their primary care physicians and screened for cancer prior to surgery, as appropriate for age and risk. Dr. Mechanick and his colleagues have also given more attention to consent, behavioral, and psychiatric issues as well as weight loss surgery in patients with type 2 diabetes.
There’s more information on sleeve gastrectomy, as well. Considered experimental in 2008, it’s now "approved and being done more widely. There are some very nice data about its metabolic effects, independent from just the weight loss effect, effects on glycemic control, and cardiovascular risk. It was very important to devote a fair amount of time" to the procedure, he said.
The guidelines note that "sleeve gastrectomy has demonstrated benefits comparable to other bariatric procedures. ... A national risk-adjusted database positions [it] between the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in terms of weight loss, co-morbidity resolution, and complications."
"We [also] addressed two issues which were quite controversial, and are still rather unsettled. The first is the use of the lap band for mild obesity. The second is the use of these weight loss procedures specifically for patients with type 2 diabetes for glycemic control. Since 2008, there’ve been a lot more data" about the issues, he said, just as there’ve been more data about the need for copper supplementation.
As in 2008, the guidelines do not recommend bariatric surgery solely for glycemic control. "We still don’t have an absolute indication for ‘diabetes surgery,’ but we do recognize the existence of the salutary effects on glycemic control when these procedures are done for weight loss. It was important for the reader to be exposed to this information," Dr. Mechanick said.
Regarding surgery in the mildly obese, the guidelines note that patients with a body mass index of 30-34.9 kg/m2 with diabetes or metabolic syndrome "may also be offered a bariatric procedure, although current evidence is limited by the number of subjects studied and lack of long-term data demonstrating net benefit."
The guidelines will be published in the March/April 2013 issue of Endocrine Practice and March 2013 issue of Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases.
Dr. Mechanick disclosed compensation from Abbott Nutrition for lectures and program development.
From preoperative evaluation through bariatric
surgery and onward through long-term postoperative health management, weight
loss surgery and the medical care associated with it is, obligatorily, a
thoroughly interdisciplinary effort. Endocrinologists and internists on the
bariatrics team spearhead lifestyle management, medical weight loss, and
long-term postoperative care and efforts to maintain durable weight loss.
Surgeons, endocrinologists, and internists work together to select patients
appropriate for bariatric surgery, to choose the weight-loss surgery best
suited to each individual patient, and to provide the proper preoperative
evaluation. Surgeons perform the appropriate bariatric operation and oversee
immediate postoperative and short-term perioperative care, and, frequently in
concert with gastroenterologists, internists, and endocrinologists, manage
complications that can result from bariatric surgery. Finally, long-term
continuity of medical care and durable maintenance of weight loss is again
directed by the endocrinologist and internist.
Thus, given that the entire bariatric care schema is
such an interdisciplinary effort, clinical practice guidelines for the
management of bariatric surgical patients must also be the product of an
analogous interdisciplinary effort. It is with this aim and in this spirit that
the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), The Obesity
Society (TOS), and American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (AAMBS)
published their initial Medical Guidelines for Clinical Practice for the Perioperative
Nutritional, Metabolic, and Nonsurgical Support of the Bariatric Surgery
Patient in 2008. The same cooperating societies have just published their
sequel with numerous substantive additions, changes, and refinements. The
Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Perioperative Nutritional, Metabolic, and
Nonsurgical Support of the Bariatric Surgery Patient – 2013 Update: Cosponsored
by American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, The Obesity Society, and
American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery was published jointly in
the March issue of Surgery for Obesity and Related Disease, and in the
March/April issue of Endocrine Practice.
Clearly, much has changed in the bariatric landscape
in the intervening half-decade. Laparoscopic gastric band surgery has declined,
while sleeve gastrectomy has gained traction as a restrictive bariatric
operation with more robust weight loss and glycemic effects. The
increasingly recognized impact of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery not only on
weight loss, but also on glycemic control and other endocrinologic endpoints
has prompted studies to determine if such benefits might also result from
restrictive-only bariatric surgeries such as sleeve gastrectomy, and initial
results appear encouraging. The arrival of more and higher-quality data with
longer-term follow up of a greater variety of endpoints has led to the ability
of these updated guidelines to provide an increasing number of more specific,
data-driven recommendations related to the broader spectrum of bariatric
surgical procedures and anatomies managed by clinicians today. They cover every
aspect of the bariatric surgical patient, from preoperative evaluation through
surgery, to postoperative management, all with more solidly outcomes-based
recommendations from over 400 references, with user-friendly and more
error-proof preoperative and postoperative care checklists, while still
arriving at such expert guidelines through interdisciplinary study and
agreement in this timely update.
John A. Martin, M.D., is associate
professor of medicine and surgery and director of endoscopy, Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago.
From preoperative evaluation through bariatric
surgery and onward through long-term postoperative health management, weight
loss surgery and the medical care associated with it is, obligatorily, a
thoroughly interdisciplinary effort. Endocrinologists and internists on the
bariatrics team spearhead lifestyle management, medical weight loss, and
long-term postoperative care and efforts to maintain durable weight loss.
Surgeons, endocrinologists, and internists work together to select patients
appropriate for bariatric surgery, to choose the weight-loss surgery best
suited to each individual patient, and to provide the proper preoperative
evaluation. Surgeons perform the appropriate bariatric operation and oversee
immediate postoperative and short-term perioperative care, and, frequently in
concert with gastroenterologists, internists, and endocrinologists, manage
complications that can result from bariatric surgery. Finally, long-term
continuity of medical care and durable maintenance of weight loss is again
directed by the endocrinologist and internist.
Thus, given that the entire bariatric care schema is
such an interdisciplinary effort, clinical practice guidelines for the
management of bariatric surgical patients must also be the product of an
analogous interdisciplinary effort. It is with this aim and in this spirit that
the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), The Obesity
Society (TOS), and American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (AAMBS)
published their initial Medical Guidelines for Clinical Practice for the Perioperative
Nutritional, Metabolic, and Nonsurgical Support of the Bariatric Surgery
Patient in 2008. The same cooperating societies have just published their
sequel with numerous substantive additions, changes, and refinements. The
Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Perioperative Nutritional, Metabolic, and
Nonsurgical Support of the Bariatric Surgery Patient – 2013 Update: Cosponsored
by American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, The Obesity Society, and
American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery was published jointly in
the March issue of Surgery for Obesity and Related Disease, and in the
March/April issue of Endocrine Practice.
Clearly, much has changed in the bariatric landscape
in the intervening half-decade. Laparoscopic gastric band surgery has declined,
while sleeve gastrectomy has gained traction as a restrictive bariatric
operation with more robust weight loss and glycemic effects. The
increasingly recognized impact of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery not only on
weight loss, but also on glycemic control and other endocrinologic endpoints
has prompted studies to determine if such benefits might also result from
restrictive-only bariatric surgeries such as sleeve gastrectomy, and initial
results appear encouraging. The arrival of more and higher-quality data with
longer-term follow up of a greater variety of endpoints has led to the ability
of these updated guidelines to provide an increasing number of more specific,
data-driven recommendations related to the broader spectrum of bariatric
surgical procedures and anatomies managed by clinicians today. They cover every
aspect of the bariatric surgical patient, from preoperative evaluation through
surgery, to postoperative management, all with more solidly outcomes-based
recommendations from over 400 references, with user-friendly and more
error-proof preoperative and postoperative care checklists, while still
arriving at such expert guidelines through interdisciplinary study and
agreement in this timely update.
John A. Martin, M.D., is associate
professor of medicine and surgery and director of endoscopy, Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago.
From preoperative evaluation through bariatric
surgery and onward through long-term postoperative health management, weight
loss surgery and the medical care associated with it is, obligatorily, a
thoroughly interdisciplinary effort. Endocrinologists and internists on the
bariatrics team spearhead lifestyle management, medical weight loss, and
long-term postoperative care and efforts to maintain durable weight loss.
Surgeons, endocrinologists, and internists work together to select patients
appropriate for bariatric surgery, to choose the weight-loss surgery best
suited to each individual patient, and to provide the proper preoperative
evaluation. Surgeons perform the appropriate bariatric operation and oversee
immediate postoperative and short-term perioperative care, and, frequently in
concert with gastroenterologists, internists, and endocrinologists, manage
complications that can result from bariatric surgery. Finally, long-term
continuity of medical care and durable maintenance of weight loss is again
directed by the endocrinologist and internist.
Thus, given that the entire bariatric care schema is
such an interdisciplinary effort, clinical practice guidelines for the
management of bariatric surgical patients must also be the product of an
analogous interdisciplinary effort. It is with this aim and in this spirit that
the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), The Obesity
Society (TOS), and American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (AAMBS)
published their initial Medical Guidelines for Clinical Practice for the Perioperative
Nutritional, Metabolic, and Nonsurgical Support of the Bariatric Surgery
Patient in 2008. The same cooperating societies have just published their
sequel with numerous substantive additions, changes, and refinements. The
Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Perioperative Nutritional, Metabolic, and
Nonsurgical Support of the Bariatric Surgery Patient – 2013 Update: Cosponsored
by American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, The Obesity Society, and
American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery was published jointly in
the March issue of Surgery for Obesity and Related Disease, and in the
March/April issue of Endocrine Practice.
Clearly, much has changed in the bariatric landscape
in the intervening half-decade. Laparoscopic gastric band surgery has declined,
while sleeve gastrectomy has gained traction as a restrictive bariatric
operation with more robust weight loss and glycemic effects. The
increasingly recognized impact of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery not only on
weight loss, but also on glycemic control and other endocrinologic endpoints
has prompted studies to determine if such benefits might also result from
restrictive-only bariatric surgeries such as sleeve gastrectomy, and initial
results appear encouraging. The arrival of more and higher-quality data with
longer-term follow up of a greater variety of endpoints has led to the ability
of these updated guidelines to provide an increasing number of more specific,
data-driven recommendations related to the broader spectrum of bariatric
surgical procedures and anatomies managed by clinicians today. They cover every
aspect of the bariatric surgical patient, from preoperative evaluation through
surgery, to postoperative management, all with more solidly outcomes-based
recommendations from over 400 references, with user-friendly and more
error-proof preoperative and postoperative care checklists, while still
arriving at such expert guidelines through interdisciplinary study and
agreement in this timely update.
John A. Martin, M.D., is associate
professor of medicine and surgery and director of endoscopy, Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago.
Weight loss surgery patients should get routine copper supplements along with other vitamins and minerals, according to newly updated bariatric surgery guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the Obesity Society, and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
The groups call for 2 mg/day to offset the potential for surgery to cause a deficiency. Although routine copper screening isn’t necessary after the procedure, copper levels should be assessed and treated as needed in patients with anemia, neutropenia, myeloneuropathy, and impaired wound healing.
The copper recommendations are new since the guidelines were last published in 2008. Other recommendations – there are 74 in all – have been revised to incorporate new advances in weight loss surgery and an improved evidence base. Changes are pointed out where they’ve been made, and the level of evidence cited for each assertion. Pre- and postoperative bariatric surgery checklists have been added as well, to help avoid errors.
"This is actually a very unique collaboration among the internists represented by the endocrinologists and the obesity people and the surgeons. We actually agreed on all these things. The main intent is to assist with clinical decision making," including selecting patients and procedures and perioperative management, said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Mechanick, president-elect of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and director of metabolic support at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
"We scrutinized every recommendation one by one in the context of the new data. In many cases the recommendations changed," he said in an interview.
Another new recommendation is for patients to be followed by their primary care physicians and screened for cancer prior to surgery, as appropriate for age and risk. Dr. Mechanick and his colleagues have also given more attention to consent, behavioral, and psychiatric issues as well as weight loss surgery in patients with type 2 diabetes.
There’s more information on sleeve gastrectomy, as well. Considered experimental in 2008, it’s now "approved and being done more widely. There are some very nice data about its metabolic effects, independent from just the weight loss effect, effects on glycemic control, and cardiovascular risk. It was very important to devote a fair amount of time" to the procedure, he said.
The guidelines note that "sleeve gastrectomy has demonstrated benefits comparable to other bariatric procedures. ... A national risk-adjusted database positions [it] between the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in terms of weight loss, co-morbidity resolution, and complications."
"We [also] addressed two issues which were quite controversial, and are still rather unsettled. The first is the use of the lap band for mild obesity. The second is the use of these weight loss procedures specifically for patients with type 2 diabetes for glycemic control. Since 2008, there’ve been a lot more data" about the issues, he said, just as there’ve been more data about the need for copper supplementation.
As in 2008, the guidelines do not recommend bariatric surgery solely for glycemic control. "We still don’t have an absolute indication for ‘diabetes surgery,’ but we do recognize the existence of the salutary effects on glycemic control when these procedures are done for weight loss. It was important for the reader to be exposed to this information," Dr. Mechanick said.
Regarding surgery in the mildly obese, the guidelines note that patients with a body mass index of 30-34.9 kg/m2 with diabetes or metabolic syndrome "may also be offered a bariatric procedure, although current evidence is limited by the number of subjects studied and lack of long-term data demonstrating net benefit."
The guidelines will be published in the March/April 2013 issue of Endocrine Practice and March 2013 issue of Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases.
Dr. Mechanick disclosed compensation from Abbott Nutrition for lectures and program development.
Weight loss surgery patients should get routine copper supplements along with other vitamins and minerals, according to newly updated bariatric surgery guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the Obesity Society, and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
The groups call for 2 mg/day to offset the potential for surgery to cause a deficiency. Although routine copper screening isn’t necessary after the procedure, copper levels should be assessed and treated as needed in patients with anemia, neutropenia, myeloneuropathy, and impaired wound healing.
The copper recommendations are new since the guidelines were last published in 2008. Other recommendations – there are 74 in all – have been revised to incorporate new advances in weight loss surgery and an improved evidence base. Changes are pointed out where they’ve been made, and the level of evidence cited for each assertion. Pre- and postoperative bariatric surgery checklists have been added as well, to help avoid errors.
"This is actually a very unique collaboration among the internists represented by the endocrinologists and the obesity people and the surgeons. We actually agreed on all these things. The main intent is to assist with clinical decision making," including selecting patients and procedures and perioperative management, said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Mechanick, president-elect of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and director of metabolic support at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
"We scrutinized every recommendation one by one in the context of the new data. In many cases the recommendations changed," he said in an interview.
Another new recommendation is for patients to be followed by their primary care physicians and screened for cancer prior to surgery, as appropriate for age and risk. Dr. Mechanick and his colleagues have also given more attention to consent, behavioral, and psychiatric issues as well as weight loss surgery in patients with type 2 diabetes.
There’s more information on sleeve gastrectomy, as well. Considered experimental in 2008, it’s now "approved and being done more widely. There are some very nice data about its metabolic effects, independent from just the weight loss effect, effects on glycemic control, and cardiovascular risk. It was very important to devote a fair amount of time" to the procedure, he said.
The guidelines note that "sleeve gastrectomy has demonstrated benefits comparable to other bariatric procedures. ... A national risk-adjusted database positions [it] between the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in terms of weight loss, co-morbidity resolution, and complications."
"We [also] addressed two issues which were quite controversial, and are still rather unsettled. The first is the use of the lap band for mild obesity. The second is the use of these weight loss procedures specifically for patients with type 2 diabetes for glycemic control. Since 2008, there’ve been a lot more data" about the issues, he said, just as there’ve been more data about the need for copper supplementation.
As in 2008, the guidelines do not recommend bariatric surgery solely for glycemic control. "We still don’t have an absolute indication for ‘diabetes surgery,’ but we do recognize the existence of the salutary effects on glycemic control when these procedures are done for weight loss. It was important for the reader to be exposed to this information," Dr. Mechanick said.
Regarding surgery in the mildly obese, the guidelines note that patients with a body mass index of 30-34.9 kg/m2 with diabetes or metabolic syndrome "may also be offered a bariatric procedure, although current evidence is limited by the number of subjects studied and lack of long-term data demonstrating net benefit."
The guidelines will be published in the March/April 2013 issue of Endocrine Practice and March 2013 issue of Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases.
Dr. Mechanick disclosed compensation from Abbott Nutrition for lectures and program development.