In a recent study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers found that bariatric surgery not only enables obese diabetic patients to lose weight, but the majority of them were also able to quit taking diabetes medications as well.
Researcher Martin Makary, associate professor of surgery, headed up a project that evaluated 2,235 adult diabetic patients who had bariatric surgery between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2005. About 86% were on at least one diabetic medication with about 23% on insulin prior to surgery
Previous research has shown that hormones in the stomach that affected glucose levels were altered by surgery. The results showed that surgery was better able to control blood glucose levels than weight loss by itself. As a result, many patients were able to stop taking medications almost immediately after surgery, even before they had lost weight.
The surgery has been shown to be safe with complication occurring in only 13 out of a 1,000 procedures. Complications with type 2 diabetes are much higher.
About 85% of patients were still off diabetes medications two years after they had surgery, and some were able to eliminate other medications as well.
The study also showed an average 70% drop in health care costs for these patients. Costs range from $6,000-$10,000 per year for obese diabetic patients. Two years after surgery the cost per patient for those who had surgery dropped to around $1,800 according to Dr. Makary. . “The results show that bariatric surgery has huge implications for public health and control of health care costs,” he said.
