Obesity Surgery Can Help Patients With Type-2 Diabetes: Medication Reduction for Diabetes

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic conducted a study that found two different types of bariatric surgery are proven to be effective for patients with type-2 diabetes. They presented their findings today at the American College of Cardiology conference.

The clinic's researchers followed a total of 150 patients: 50 diabetes patients who were treated with medication; 50 who received gastric bypass surgery; and 50 who received a type of bariatric surgery called a sleeve gastrectomy. Their study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the end, the researchers found that glycemic control improved in all three groups; weight loss was greater in both the gastric-bypass group and the sleeve-gastrectomy group; drugs administered to lower glucose, lipid, and blood-pressure levels decreased such levels in the patients that received surgery and increased levels in the patients who were only treated with medication.

"At three years, the therapeutic gap - the difference between blood sugar in the surgical group and the medical group - got even larger in favor of surgery than it had been at one year," said Philip Schauer, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, in this USA Today article.

In the sleeve gastrectomy surgery, doctors shrink the size of the stomach about 70%, which makes a patient feel full after eating small amounts of food. In gastric bypass surgery, the stomach is shrunk and a part of the small intestine is connected to a small hole in the top section of the stomach. This patient will also feel full with less food, and the food that is consumed will no longer enter specific parts of the stomach and small intestine that break down food. This process will not allow the body to absorb the calories.

The researchers are still unsure why these surgeries are effective in treating type-2 diabetes, but the improvements are immediate and insulin is no longer needed a day or two after the procedures.

To read more about the Cleveland Clinic study, please refer to the published study in the NEJM.