Long term follow-up of serum lipoproteins after jejuno-ileal bypass surgery for massive obesity.

Serum lipoproteins were determined in grossly-obese patients 24 to 59 months after jejuno-ileal bypass surgery. Only minor further changes had occured compared to results obtained after about one year. The main findings were: hypertriglyceridaemia, if present, was normalised; LDL-cholesterol was reduced by about 40 per cent and HDL-cholesterol did not increase in spite of the VLDL-TG normalisation and mean weight losses of about 40 kg for males and 50 kg for females. It is possible that in obesity the well-known negative relationship between VLDL-TG and HDL-cholesterol is disturbed, and that the low HDL concentration represents a primary lipoprotein abnormality directly linked to obesity, rather than an association with the serum TG increase often found in obesity.