Research

Hormonal

Metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) is associated with a significantly lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all-cause mortality compared to treatment with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) in patients with type-2 diabetes and severe obesity.

For patients with type-2 diabetes and severe obesity, metabolic surgery appears to offer better protection against major heart events and death than treatment with GLP-1 medications alone. While surgery carries a small risk of complications, the long-term cardiovascular benefits outweigh these risks compared to pharmacological management. Patients should discuss these specific cardiovascular outcomes with their healthcare providers when choosing between surgical and medical management.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
In this matched cohort study, MBS was associated with lower risk for MACE compared to treatment with early GLP-1 RA in patients with T2D.
Erik Stenberg et al. · International Journal of Obesity · 2023

Why this rating

Large nationwide cohort study with propensity score matching, but non-randomized design limits causal inference.

Source

Major adverse cardiovascular events among patients with type-2 diabetes, a nationwide cohort study comparing primary metabolic and bariatric surgery to GLP-1 receptor agonist treatment

Erik Stenberg et al. · International Journal of Obesity · 2023

DOI 10.1038/s41366-023-01254-z

cohort · n=4322Cited 30×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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