In patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity, bariatric metabolic surgery is associated with a lower risk of the incidence of first-ever congestive heart failure (HF) than treatment with glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP1R) agonists, according to a study published in Nature Medicine.

“The benefits of bariatric metabolic surgery for the reduction of congestive HF are well established; however, the comparative effectiveness of bariatric metabolic surgery and GLP1R agonists in reducing the incidence of congestive HF is unknown,” explain study investigators Yael Wolff-Sagy and Dror Dicker. To address this gap, the investigators conducted an observational, retrospective cohort study to compare the incidence of congestive HF in adults with diabetes and obesity and without a history of ischaemic heart disease, ischaemic stroke or congestive HF who had either undergone their first bariatric metabolic surgery or initiated treatment with GLP1R agonists. The study included 2,205 matched pairs of patients (64.5% female), with a median follow-up of 6.6 years and a maximum follow-up of 12 years.