Disproportionate abdominal visceral fat mass reduction and complete reversal of cardiovascular remodelling accompany Roux-en-Y gastric bypass but not gastric banding - benefits beyond simply weight loss

Background It is emerging that distribution of body fat, and in particular visceral fat (VFAT) is more important in determining cardiovascular risk than total body fat percentage. Rouxen-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) may preferentially reduce visceral fat, thus providing a mechanism to study the impact of visceral fat on cardiovascular function. We sought to determine 1) whether visceral fat is related to adverse left ventricular (LV) remodelling and reduced aortic distensibility, and 2) whether RYGB, by preferentially targeting visceral fat, results in greater improvements in LV geometry and vascular function than gastric banding.