‘Weight-loss surgery cures diabetes even in mildly obese’

NEW DELHI: Not just in morbidly obese diabetics, bariatric surgery— popularly known as weight loss surgery, has helped cure diabetes even in mildly obese patients, a study by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) shows.

The paper — that has been published online in the May edition of journal Obesity Surgery — is based on the study that was conducted to evaluate the impact of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), a form of bariatric surgery, on patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30-35 kg/m2, suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus.

For the study, 20 obese diabetic patients, with a 30-35 BMI, who underwent the surgery during March 2012 to February 2015, were studied. These patients were followed up regularly at 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 24 months after surgery.

“After 2 years, along with the average BMI decrease, 10 patients were completely cured of the disease. Insulin could be stopped in all six patients who were on it before being operated,” said Dr Sandeep Aggarwal, professor, department of surgical disciplines, AIIMS.

“This prospective study confirms the positive impact of LSG on diabetic status of non-morbidly obese patients, which is an important piece of evidence,” said Dr Aggarwal.

Dr Pradeep Chowbey, chairman, Max Institute of Minimal Access, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, who has a 10-year follow up study under publication on the same subject, agrees that bariatric surgery helps cure diabetes in most cases.

“I have been working on an ICMR-supported study to know the effect of bariatric surgery in low BMI diabetic patients since 2016. I have got 10 years of results behind me and I can say that in 82% cases, the disease is cured.”

However, Dr Chowbey adds, “The best results are with gastric bypass surgery, which is also a form of bariatric surgery.”

Chowbey performs 50 bariatric surgeries in a month of which 30 are on diabetes patients.

If a person has diabetes for less than 10 years, his or her chances of reversing diabetes are nearly 100% if they lose weight.