Weight loss surgery may benefit diabetes
Thursday January 5th, 2012
Overweight people with type 2 diabetes will not usually be cured by weight loss surgery - but will get better health, British researchers reported yesterday.
The
researchers say that about 41 per cent of patients are cured by one form
of surgery, gastric bypass - as opposed to the 80 per cent that has been
claimed.
But the treatment does lead to improved control of blood sugar, they say.
Their analysis is published in the British Journal of Surgery.
The researchers studied more than 200 patients, who underwent three types of weight loss surgery. They used a new criteria developed in the USA to establish complete remission. This requires patients to have normal measures of glucose metabolism for one year after surgery - without taking diabetes medication.
Researcher Dr Carel le Roux, of Imperial College, London, said: "Using the new criteria, we don't get such eye-catching figures as some that have been quoted in recent years.
"But it's clear that weight loss surgery, particularly gastric bypass, has a significant beneficial effect on glucose control.
"Diabetes is a chronic, multisystem disease. Stomach surgery may not mean that patients can stop taking diabetes medication, but surgery and medication together achieve better results than either treatment on its own."
Effect of the definition of type II diabetes remission in the evaluation of bariatric surgery for metabolic disorders. DJ Pournaras et al. British Journal of Surgery January 2012 Volume 99, Issue 1, pages 100-103.
Tags: Diabetes | Diet & Food | UK News
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