Surgical Treatment May Cure Type 2 Diabetes
posted 01/06/04
Gastric bypass surgery, a well-established treatment for morbid obesity, may also cure Type 2 diabetes, even in individuals who are not overweight, according to a groundbreaking new study.

Gastric bypass surgery, a well-established treatment for morbid obesity, may also cure Type 2 diabetes, even in individuals who are not overweight, according to a groundbreaking new study from IRCAD/The European Institute of Telesurgery being published in the January 2004 issue of the Annals of Surgery.

The antidiabetic effect of gastric bypass surgery in obese patients was first observed in 1982, and has since been affirmed by a more recent, large-scale study published in October of this year*. However, it remained unclear if this effect was secondary to the treatment of the obesity and subsequent weight loss or if the surgery actually had a direct effect on controlling Type 2 diabetes.

The authors of the current study, Dr. Francesco Rubino and Professor Jacques Marescaux, have now demonstrated, for the first time, that surgery to bypass the duodenum and jejunum controls Type 2 diabetes even when obesity is not present. The doctors performed the study in non-obese rats with naturally-occurring diabetes. They found that glucose levels in rats undergoing bypass surgery returned to normal after surgery compared to the same type of rats who did not have bypass surgery and whose diabetes worsened. This finding generates new hope for millions of people suffering from the disease, and may revolutionize traditional scientific thinking about diabetes.

Source: Diabetes In Control.com: Annals of Surgery, October 2003.

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