Hypertension drugs not needed after gastric bypass, says Dr Sandeep Aggarwal
New Delhi: A recent study by the country’s premier health care institute, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Aiims) has found that patients undergoing ‘One Anastomosis Gastric Bypass (OAGB)’ did not require medicine for hypertension or blood pressure and diabetes, post surgery.
Aiims surgery wing professor Dr Sandeep Aggarwal told this newspaper that the OAGB, also known as “mini-gastric bypass” improves metabolic functioning of patients and almost brings to a zero the requirement of medicines for hypertension and diabetes.
“After six months of OAGB, 100 per cent patients suffering from hypertension have stopped taking medicine and in case of diabetics, they stopped taking medicines after a month.
According to Dr Aggarwal, the procedure OAGB is done on “super obese”, an individual with a BMI of 50 or more. “Study shows that under OAGB, weight loss is more and has better impact on many of the obesity-related co-morbidities. The results also show that OAGB is better post procedure on patients compared to other procedures,” said Dr Aggarwal.
Based on findings of the study, Dr Aggarwal advised that for patients receiving OAGB, regular intake of iron, vitamin, proteins and mineral supplements is necessary. The OAGB procedure has been started in the apex hospital around two-and-a- half years ago and is conducting the procedure regularly on super obese patients.
Talking about the benefit of new procedure adopted by the Aiims, Dr Aggarwal said that it was a relatively simple procedure compared to other procedures, and took a shorter operating time and less operative complications. This was because the OAGB is a minimally invasive procedure performed with laparoscopic technique. “In long-term, the benefits of the OAGB procedure also include intestinal obstruction problems and less risk for internal herniation,” Dr Aggarwal added.
Banking on the findings of the initial survey, the Aiims planning to go for a detailed study of the procedure. “More in-depth long-term study will be conducted to find out more long and short term benefits of the OAGB,” he Dr Aggarwal said.
