Value of weight loss surgery examined as diabetes treatment

A new study by scientists at Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has found that patients who have weight loss surgery as a way of treating their type 2 diabetes may not be hitting the same levels of remission as previously thought.
However, the research project, which was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre and published in the British Journal of Surgery, showed that weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery, can also help people control their blood sugar levels.
The research re-examined data concerning over 200 people with type 2 diabetes to identify how useful the three types of weight loss surgery are with the new criteria, finding that the remission rate was 41 per cent for gastric bypass, and that this was the most effective type of surgery. The previous, less-stringent, criteria used by previous studies had claimed that there was an 80 per cent remission rate.
Carel le Roux, who led the study, commented “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.”
He added “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.”