London, Nov 15 (IANS): Obese individuals who undergo bariatric surgery for weight loss may have significantly decreased risk of heart failure, a research has found.

Bariatric surgery for weight loss is achieved by reducing the size of the stomach with a gastric band or through removal of a portion of the stomach or by resecting and re-routing the small intestine to a small stomach pouch.

The research found that participants in the study, who underwent bariatric surgery, had nearly 50 per cent lower risk of heart failure.

The patients in the bariatric surgery group had fewer incidences of atrial fibrillation, diabetes and hypertension -- known risk factors for heart failure.

Further, the bariatric surgery group lost more weight than those in the intensive lifestyle modification programme.

"Our study shows an association between obesity and heart failure and offers support for efforts to prevent and treat obesity aggressively, including the use of bariatric surgery," said Johan Sundstrom, Professor at Uppsala University in Sweden.

For the study, the team compared 25,804 bariatric surgery patients in a Scandinavian obesity surgery registry to 13,701 Swedish nationwide registry patients who used an intensive structured lifestyle-modification programme.

The results of the preliminary research was presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016 in Louisiana, recently.