Many diabetes-free after gastric-bypass

RICHMOND, Va., June 25 (UPI) -- Patients remained free of diabetes years after getting gastric bypass surgery, U.S. researchers said.

Gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine.

In the study, more than 65 percent of those whose diabetes was treated with oral medications and 75 percent of those treated with diet and lifestyle management continued to be diabetes free in the five to 16 years after they had had the weight-loss-promoting surgery -- sometime between 1993-2003.

However, the researchers found about 70 percent of the study patients whose diabetes was treated with insulin had a recurrence of diabetes -- not related to the amount of weight loss. Also, 40 percent of those who regained about 20 percent of their weight loss experienced a return of diabetes.

"This study suggests that people with type 2 diabetes and morbid obesity who get surgery before becoming insulin-dependent have the greatest chance for complete resolution and avoiding the progression of diabetes," study co-author Dr. James W. Maher of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond said in a statement.

Of the 177 diabetic morbidly obese patients in the retrospective analysis, 59 were insulin dependent, 83 used oral medications and 35 used diet and lifestyle changes to control their diabetes before undergoing surgery.

The findings were presented at the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery annual meeting in Dallas.