Treating Diabetes
Not sure if you guys heard the news last week, but some exciting reports got a lot of attention. Baically, two well designed studies from the US compared individuals with diabetes who had either undergone Gastric Bypass surgery versus the best available medical treatment. Not surprisingly, the surgery group of patients did remarkabley well in acheiving high rates of diabetes remision. We’ve all known how good the Bypass is in having patients get off their diabetic medication, but these studies were a big support in proving to all health care providers the benefits of bariatric surgery. News of the reports were seen on CBS news and also the local paper. It is going to be an exciting time for bariatric surgery, with a greater acceptance of these procedures causing positive metabolic effects like diabetes improvement.
Here are the two articles if interested:
- Schauer PR, Kashyap SR, Wolski K, et al. Bariatric surgery versus intensive medical therapy in obese patients with diabetes. N Engl J Med 2012. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1200225.
- Mingrone G, Panunzi S, De Gaetano A, et al. Bariatric surgery versus conventional medical therapy for type 2 diabetes. N Engl J Med 2012. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1200111.