Bariatric surgery is the term for operations to help promote weight loss by making it difficult for the patient to consume a lot (or even a normal amount) of food. It offers a viable solution of mitigating type 2 diabetes, if not curing it entirely. In 2004, a major study showed that after 10 years, diabetes disappeared in 36% of patients who had the surgery, compared with 13% who did not.
Bariatric surgery is an increasingly popular option for people who can't lose enough weight by diet and exercise. The number of such surgeries has quadrupled since 2000, reaching 177,600 this year. For morbidly obese patients with type 2 diabetes, bariatric surgery results in a cure rate of 80-98%. About 90% of type 2 diabetics are overweight. In terms of just diabetes alone, the cure rate of serious illness after surgery is greater than 80%.
Bariatric surgery is nothing to take lightly. Although it is a serious procedure, it gives type 2 diabetics a token of hope they may never have to rue the day of diabetic complication like blindness, amputations, neuropathy, stroke, heart attack, and life itself. Is the risk worth the reward?
1. It should be noted there is more than one type of bariatric surgery. Your figure shows the Fouci (sp?) pouch, which applies a balloon band that can be adjusted. The more typical (and the one most insurance will pay for) is the Rous-En-Y (sp?) which actually takes out a section of stomach and reroutes the small intestine.
I was going through the process of getting the R-E-Y surgery but then back out at the 11th hour from concerns of complications and lack of (familial | friend) support.
Posted at 7:09PM on Jan 12th 2007 by madbard