Application status and prospect of metabolic surgery in the field of heart transplantation / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Obesity can not only lead to various metabolic diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, it is also closely related to the occurrence and development of heart failure. Heart transplantation is the ultimate treatment for patients with heart failure. However, heart failure patients with obesity are usually excluded from the list of heart transplants. That is to say, obesity is considered a contraindication for heart transplantation. The traditional weight loss methods, including lifestyle interventions and medications, can not effectively alleviate obesity and its comorbidities because of their limited effect and time-consuming. In addition, weight-loss drugs cannot be used in heart transplantation because they can affect the absorption of immunosuppressive drugs. At present, metabolic surgery has become the most effective method for the treatment of obesity and its comorbidities, and is now gradually applied in the field of heart transplantation most of the heart failure patients with obesity meet the standards of heart transplantation after metabolic surgery, greatly increasing the transplantation rate as well as obesity, obesity-related metabolic diseases, and cardiac function were significantly improved, even some patients with heart failure no longer need heart transplantation after their cardiac function has been significantly improved. However, the application of metabolic surgery in the field of heart transplantation has not yet reached a consensus, and only a few reviews on this topic have been published. In this article, the application status and prospects of metabolic surgery in the field of heart transplantation are reviewed so as to provided reference for clinical practice.