Washington D.C. [U.S.A.]: Seems like, stomach-narrowing surgery does not just augment your
beauty but also aids in easing the chronic knee pain.
According to a NYU School Of
Medicine-led study, extremely obese people who have a band surgically strapped
around their stomachs to restrict food intake not only lose weight but also
suffer less from arthritic knee pain.
The pain, say the study leaders
at NYU School of Medicine, proceeds from the deterioration and related
inflammation in knee joints caused in part by the extra weight they bear. And
while the pain relief seen with lap-band surgery applied to all patients with
osteoarthritic knees, researchers found that it was most helpful in the
youngest men and women who lost the most weight.
"Our study shows that
extremely obese people seeking relief from their knee pain should consider
lap-band surgery earlier because the benefits from it being successful --
although significant for all ages -- decrease with age," said study senior
investigator, Jonathan Samuels.
Samuels said it is likely that
knee joints and cartilage become so damaged after a certain point that there is
little cushion left for weight loss to preserve. Along these lines, the
research team found that people in their 40s reported nearly twice as much pain
relief after lap-band as those who had the surgery in their 50s.
More than 130,000 Americans
have had the procedure done since 2011, national statistics show. Although the
operation is considered relatively safe, complications may include nausea,
stomach ulcers, and infection.
The study authors said their
findings are especially important because one in three American adults is now
overweight. Studies also showed that the number of Americans with
osteoarthritis has more than doubled since World War II.
The new analysis was based on
the experiences of 120 patients at NYU Langone Health who underwent lap-band
surgery between 2002 and 2015. All were surveyed about what they remembered
about their knee pain immediately before surgery, a year after their procedure,
and for as long as 14 years later.
The main purpose of the survey,
researchers said, was to find out why some extremely obese people showed more
knee-pain relief from lap-band surgery than others. Study participants had an
average body mass index, or BMI, of 40, which equates to a 5 feet and 10
inches-tall man who weighs about 280 pounds, or a 5 foot 6 inches-tall woman
who weighs 250 pounds.
According to the survey
results, men and women in their 40s experienced postsurgical knee pain
reductions after one year of between 50 percent and 60 percent; while those in
their 50s, one year later, had pain reductions between 30 percent and 40
percent; and those in their 60s, had reductions between 20 percent and 30
percent. Pain relief persisted for a decade in all patients monitored.
Results also showed that BMI at
the time of surgery did not influence whose knee pain went down the most.
People with BMIs in the upper 40s were just as likely to report decreased knee
pain as people with BMIs in the lower 40s if they lost proportionally the same
amount of total body weight.
However, study participants who
lost the most weight had the steepest reductions in knee pain. Dropping more
than 13 points on the BMI scale - a measure of kilograms per meter squared based
on height - halved their pain scores, assessed on a scale from one to 10, when
compared to people who lost eight or fewer BMI points.
The findings from this study
are published in the journal Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism.(ANI)
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