Bariatric Surgery for Advanced Diabetes: Many Patients Maintain Remission 10 Years Later

Observational studies suggest that bariatric surgery for weight loss can induce long-term remission of type 2 diabetes, but patients in such studies often are relatively young, with early or mild diabetes. Researchers randomized 60 patients (age range, 30–60) with body-mass index >35 kg/m², type 2 diabetes for longer than 5 years, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA_1c) >7.0% to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), biliopancreatic diversion (BPD), or medical therapy. In previously reported 5-year data, half of surgical patients and no medical patients were in remission — i.e., fasting blood glucose, <100 mg/dL and HbA_1c <6.5% for at least 1 year without medical therapy (NEJM JW Gen Med Apr 15 2012 and N Engl J Med 2012; 366:1577).

In newly reported …