A new study found that weight loss surgery could help improve the condition of obese type 2 diabetes patients long-term.
Previous studies established that a bariatric surgery could reduce the symptoms of diabetes short-term, but no follow-up study was made to check its long-term effect.
Researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden led by Dr. Lars Sjostrom checked the data of 343 participants diagnosed with type 2 diabetes who underwent weight loss surgery. The analysts also looked at the records of 260 patients who had the same condition but did not have the surgery.
After a two-year follow-up period, the researchers found that 72 percent of the first group's symptoms were reduced, compared to only 17 percent of the other group. Fifteen years later, the number dropped to 30 percent - a number still higher than those who did not undergo bariatric surgery, at seven percent.
"In this very long-term follow-up observational study of obese patients with type 2 diabetes, bariatric surgery was associated with more frequent diabetes remission and fewer complications than usual care," the study's authors concluded, quoted by Healthday News. "These findings require confirmation in randomized trials."
Dr. Sjostrom clarified that bariatric surgery would not cure type 2 diabetes, but stressed that it could help reduce symptoms in the long run. Aside from reducing the remission of the disease, health experts believed that it could also reduce the symptoms of other related diseases such as heath attack, stroke, vision complications, kidney problems and premature death.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of American adults diagnosed with diabetes jumped from 29 million to 86 million. The agency estimated that one in five Americans would have diabetes by 2050, Reuters reported.
The study was published in the June 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
