Surgery Wins Again for Obese Diabetics

Yet another study has found that bariatric surgery is a better diabetes treatment in obese patients than medical therapy, Italian researchers said, confirming results from other recent trials.

In a prospective cohort study involving 30 morbidly obese diabetic patients undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, compared with 30 similar patients receiving usual drug-based care, measures of diabetic control were improved far more with the surgical procedure, according to a group led by Nicola Basso, MD, of the University of Rome "Sapienza."

Patients receiving medical therapy showed modest improvements from baseline in major diabetic outcomes after 18 months - fasting plasma glucose levels fell by more than 30 mg/dL and hemoglobin A1c values declined by one percentage point - but diabetes was nearly eradicated in the surgical patients, Basso and colleagues reported online in Archives of Surgery.

Jon C. Gould, MD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, commented in an accompanying critique that the results were no longer surprising, and that the time had now come to develop formal guidelines for bariatric surgery as a diabetes treatment.

"An obese diabetic patient should have access to bariatric surgery in appropriate clinical circumstances," Gould wrote. "This access should be uniform, consistent, and not subject to potential bias, differences in opinion, or a lack of understanding regarding contemporary bariatric surgery outcomes."

The new study comes on the heels of two randomized trials published late last month in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that various forms of bariatric surgery - including Roux-en-Y gastric bypass as well as sleeve gastrectomy - led to significantly greater improvements in diabetes control relative to medical therapy.

Numerous uncontrolled studies had previously found similar benefits from bariatric surgery.

In the new Italian study, Basso and colleagues examined outcomes in 30 patients with body mass index (BMI) values of at least 35 (mean 41.3, maximum 53.4) and type 2 diabetes who chose to undergo sleeve gastrectomy.

Their outcomes after 18 months were compared with those of another 30 patients with similar baseline values for BMI, fasting plasma glucose, and hemoglobin A1c who preferred usual care, mostly oral anti-diabetic drugs as well as education on diet and exercise. Six patients were taking insulin.

Major outcomes in the two groups were as follows (P-values adjusted for age and sex or age, sex, and BMI):

BMI: −13.5 for surgery, 0.17 for usual care (P<0.001)
Basal glucose levels in patients with diabetes (>10 years): −116.2 mg/dL for surgery, −36.1 mg/dL for usual care (P=0.05)
Basal glucose levels in patients with diabetes for (<10 years): −45 mg/dL for surgery, −30.4 for usual care (P=0.05)Final mean values in the surgery group were: BMI 28.3, fasting plasma glucose 97 mg/dL, and HbA1c 6%.