The Role of Sleeve Gastrectomy in Reducing Cardiovascular Risk.

Background: Obesity is an independent cardiovascular risk factor and a catalyst of other cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) and metabolic syndrome.

Methods: We analyzed cardiovascular risk in obese patients before and after sleeve gastrectomy (SG). To this end, we studied changes in body mass index (BMI), blood chemistry parameters that characterize the risk of atherosclerosis and instrumental parameters (objective markers of this risk), namely intima-media thickness (IMT) and flow-mediated dilation (FMD), the latter reflecting endothelial function.