Clinical cardiology
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Clinical cardiology · Oct 1985
Cardiac arrhythmias during sleep in morbidly obese sleep-apneic patients before and after gastric bypass surgery.
Fourteen morbidly obese patients scheduled for gastric bypass surgery were diagnosed preoperatively as suffering from sleep apnea syndrome. There were 13 males and 1 female aged 24 to 59 years. Mean preoperative excessive body weight was 222 +/- 38%; mean apnea index prior to surgery was 84 +/- 44. ⋯ In a consecutive sleep study performed 6 months postoperatively most cardiac arrhythmias disappeared. Marked sinus arrhythmia persisted in only two patients and severe ventricular premature beats (Lown's grade III-IV), found preoperatively in all patients, were still present postoperatively in only two, although in a much milder form. Surgical weight reduction, therefore, is a valuable method in the abolishment of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias of the morbidly obese sleep-apneic patient.