Kidney stones are common after bariatric surgery

Abstract

Obesity, a risk factor for kidney stones and chronic kidney disease (CKD), is effectively treated with bariatric surgery. However, it is unclear if surgery alters stone or CKD risk. To determine this we studied 762 Olmsted County, Minnesota residents who underwent bariatric surgery and matched them with equally obese control individuals who did not undergo surgery. The majority of bariatric patients underwent standard Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) (78%), with the remainder having more malabsorptive procedures (very long limb RYGB or biliopancreatic diversion/duodenal switch; 14%), or restrictive procedures (laparoscopic banding or sleeve gastrectomy; 7%). Mean age was 45 years with 80% female. The mean preoperative BMI was 46.7 kg/m2 for both cohorts. Rates of kidney stones were similar between surgery patients and controls at baseline, but new stone formation significantly increased in surgery patients (11.0%) compared to controls (4.3%) during 6.0 years of follow up. After malabsorptive and standard surgery, the comorbidity-adjusted hazard ratio of incident stones was significantly increased to 4.15 and 2.13, respectively but not significantly changed for restrictive surgery. The risk of CKD significantly increased after the malabsorptive procedures (adjusted hazard ratio of 1.96). Thus, while RYGB and malabsorptive procedures are more effective for weight loss, both are associated with increased risk of stones, while malabsorptive procedures also increase CKD risk.