Weight loss surgery patients should get routine copper supplements along with other vitamins and minerals, according to newly updated bariatric surgery guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the Obesity Society, and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
The groups call for 2 mg/day to offset the potential for surgery to cause a deficiency. Although routine copper screening isn’t necessary after the procedure, copper levels should be assessed and treated as needed in patients with anemia, neutropenia, myeloneuropathy, and impaired wound healing.
The copper recommendations are new since the guidelines were last published in 2008. Other recommendations – there are 74 in all – have been revised to incorporate new advances in weight loss surgery and an improved evidence base. Changes are pointed out where they’ve been made, and the level of evidence cited for each assertion. Pre- and postoperative bariatric surgery checklists have been added as well, to help avoid errors.
"This is actually a very unique collaboration among the internists represented by the endocrinologists and the obesity people and the surgeons. We actually agreed on all these things. The main intent is to assist with clinical decision making," including selecting patients and procedures and perioperative management, said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Mechanick, president-elect of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and director of metabolic support at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
"We scrutinized every recommendation one by one in the context of the new data. In many cases the recommendations changed," he said in an interview.
Another new recommendation is for patients to be followed by their primary care physicians and screened for cancer prior to surgery, as appropriate for age and risk. Dr. Mechanick and his colleagues have also given more attention to consent, behavioral, and psychiatric issues as well as weight loss surgery in patients with type 2 diabetes.
There’s more information on sleeve gastrectomy, as well. Considered experimental in 2008, it’s now "approved and being done more widely. There are some very nice data about its metabolic effects, independent from just the weight loss effect, effects on glycemic control, and cardiovascular risk. It was very important to devote a fair amount of time" to the procedure, he said.
The guidelines note that "sleeve gastrectomy has demonstrated benefits comparable to other bariatric procedures. ... A national risk-adjusted database positions [it] between the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in terms of weight loss, co-morbidity resolution, and complications."
"We [also] addressed two issues which were quite controversial, and are still rather unsettled. The first is the use of the lap band for mild obesity. The second is the use of these weight loss procedures specifically for patients with type 2 diabetes for glycemic control. Since 2008, there’ve been a lot more data" about the issues, he said, just as there’ve been more data about the need for copper supplementation.
As in 2008, the guidelines do not recommend bariatric surgery solely for glycemic control. "We still don’t have an absolute indication for ‘diabetes surgery,’ but we do recognize the existence of the salutary effects on glycemic control when these procedures are done for weight loss. It was important for the reader to be exposed to this information," Dr. Mechanick said.
Regarding surgery in the mildly obese, the guidelines note that patients with a body mass index of 30-34.9 kg/m2 with diabetes or metabolic syndrome "may also be offered a bariatric procedure, although current evidence is limited by the number of subjects studied and lack of long-term data demonstrating net benefit."
The guidelines will be published in the March/April 2013 issue of Endocrine Practice and March 2013 issue of Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases.
Dr. Mechanick disclosed compensation from Abbott Nutrition for lectures and program development.