CHICAGO — Two years following bariatric surgery, 73% of patients had remission of their type 2 diabetes, compared with 15% of control patients who did not receive the surgery, according to study findings.
Dr. John B. Dixon of Monash University, Melbourne, presented the findings in a poster at the annual scientific sessions of the American Diabetes Association.
The study enrolled 30 patients in each group, all of whom had a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 kg/m
At 2 years, patients who had surgery achieved a mean weight loss of 21% of body weight, compared with 2% for those who did not have surgery. Patients in the surgery group lost a mean of 65% of their excess body weight, compared with 6% in the control group.
At baseline, 23% of the surgically treated patients had a hemoglobin A1c level below 7%, and that percentage rose to 87% at 2 years. In the control group, 37% had an HbA1c level below 7% at baseline, and that rose to 50% at 2 years.
By the trial's end, 10% of the surgically treated patients were using metformin, compared with more than 90% of the controls.
The surgical group had greater improvements in triglyceride levels and HDL cholesterol levels as well.
Adverse events in the surgical group included one patient with a superficial wound infection, two patients who needed nonurgent revision, and one patient who had the band removed after 15 days because of persistent regurgitation.
Further analysis showed that a 10% weight loss provided an 85% sensitivity and an 86% specificity for remission, Dr. Dixon said.