Bariatric Surgery Improves Kidney Function

Obesity is a pandemic of 21^st Century. It brings along with it co-morbidities such as Type 2 Diabetes and High Blood Pressure. Both of these directly affect Kidney function. Diabetes alone contributes to 44% of patients undergoing Dialysis for kidney failure. Dialysis can cost a patient about 15-25000 dollars per year which is a huge economic burden.

The earliest sign of the diabetic renal disease is an increased excretion of albumin in urine. This happens long before the usual tests show evidence of kidney disease. Diabetes-related kidney damage causes a decrease in glomerular filtration rate of the kidney known as GFR and increases proteinuria and microalbuminuria. Thus the obese person gradually goes into kidney failure.

Bariatric Surgery-related weight loss has shown to stop the progression of kidney disease and also reverse it in many patients. In a study of 714 patients done at California, within 3 months post-surgery, the mean eGFR of patients who had bariatric surgery increased from 48 ml/min to 63.2 ml/min. This apparent increase in kidney function was maintained throughout the 3 year period. This is one of the multiple studies done showing improvement in kidney function.

The improvement decreased when the kidney disease was at a more advanced stage. Which means that these patients with Obesity and Renal disease need early intervention with bariatric surgery before the kidney disease advances to a worse state.

Thus, early Bariatric Surgery done for patients with Diabetes or renal disease can help prevent or limit the progression of renal disease.