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Who would have thought that the most effective available treatment of a metabolic medical disease (that is, type 2 diabetes) could be a surgical solution? A new study in JAMA showed that patients who have type 2 diabetes and who are obese, were far more able to come off their diabetic medications than those who were treated by non-surgical means.
From Melbourne, Australia, an article titled "Adjustable Gastric Banding and Conventional Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes - A Randomized Controlled Trial" is published in the January 23, 2008 of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The aim of the study is to determine if weight loss surgery resulted in better control of type 2 diabetes than medical (non-surgical) approaches to weight loss and diabetes control. Among 55 patients who completed the follow-up (out of 60 patients), remission of type 2 diabetes was achieved by 73% in the surgical group and 13% in the non-surgical group. In this study, the surgical procedure was laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (Lap Band). Remission meant being able to keep normal diabetic blood tests while not taking diabetes medications anymore. Please notice that the participants' BMI was more than 30 and less than 40. So, the surgeons accepted lower BMI than the usual cut-off of BMI of 35 that is mostly recommended. Furthermore, the study excluded BMI above 40.
This study adds to other pointers from previous research. Dr. Henry Buchwald in his frequently quoted study: "Bariatric Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis" reported that weight loss surgery resulted in complete resolution of type 2 diabetes in 76.8% of patients. To my knowledge, not a single conventional non-surgical treatment of diabetes reported anything even close.
Diabetes treated by surgery? Well, this is not a new concept. Actually, in 1992, an article was published under the provocatrive title: "Is type II diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) a surgical disease?". This is one reason why the professional organization for bariatric surgeons in North America changed its name from the "American Society for Bariatric Surgery" (ASBS) to the "American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery" (ASMBS)
The authors of the reference article, John B. Dixon, MBBS, PhD; Paul E. O’Brien, MD; Julie Playfair, RN; Leon Chapman, MBBS; Linda M. Schachter, MBBS, PhD; Stewart Skinner, MBBS, PhD are from the Centre for Obesity Research and Education (CORE), Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
References:
Dixon JB, O'Brien PE, Playfair J, Chapman L, Schachter LM, Skinner S, Proietto J, Bailey M, Anderson M. Adjustable Gastric Banding and Conventional Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA. 2008 Jan 23;299(3):316-323 (Abstract)
Buchwald H, Avidor Y, Braunwald E, Jensen MD, Pories W, Fahrbach K, Schoelles K. Bariatric surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. 2004 Oct 13;292(14):1724-37. PMID: 15479938 (Full Text)
Dixon JB, Pories WJ, O'Brien PE, Schauer PR, Zimmet P.Surgery as an effective early intervention for diabesity: why the reluctance? Diabetes Care. 2005 Feb;28(2):472-4. PMID: 15677819 (Full Text)
Pories WJ, MacDonald KG Jr, Flickinger EG, Dohm GL, Sinha MK, Barakat HA, May HJ, Khazanie P, Swanson MS, Morgan E, et al. Is type II diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) a surgical disease? Ann Surg. 1992 Jun;215(6):633-42; PMID: 1632685 (Full Text)
