Cardiometabolic & kidneyResearch article
Cardiovascular benefits of obesity therapies: an overview of obesity medicines and metabolic bariatric surgery
- overview
Authors' conclusion
Obesity treatments offer a safe and effective method to lose weight with varying CV benefits, with current evidence still in early stages to establish robust clinical recommendations.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with overweight, obesity and established cardiovascular disease (CVD) with and without diabetes; obesity-related heart failure of preserved ejection fraction
- Comparison
- metabolic bariatric surgery compared with non-surgical care
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
three-point major adverse CV events (MACE)
- glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists consistently reduce three-point major adverse cardiovascular (CV) events (major adverse CV events (MACE))
Further findings
Symptoms, functional capacity, worsening heart failure events and CV mortality in obesity-related heart failure of preserved ejection fraction
- semaglutide and tirzepatide improve symptoms and functional capacity and reduce worsening heart failure events
- effects on CV mortality remain uncertain
MACE, heart failure and all-cause mortality with metabolic bariatric surgery
- associated with durable weight loss and lower observed rates of MACE, heart failure and all-cause mortality compared with non-surgical care
- causal inference is constrained by residual confounding
Weight loss and CVD event reduction
- sustained weight loss of at least 10% is more likely to translate into CVD event reduction
- at least 10%
Original publication
Cardiovascular benefits of obesity therapies: an overview of obesity medicines and metabolic bariatric surgery. Heart. Published 23 February 2026. doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2025-326812
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it