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Los Angeles—It’s been a decades-long effort to have bariatric surgery accepted as a safe, effective treatment for people who are morbidly obese.

Now, a new study presented at ObesityWeek 2015 suggests that bariatric procedures also should be considered a safe, effective treatment for people who have type 2 diabetes and are overweight or mildly obese.

“The risk–benefit profile that has emerged for bariatric surgery in people with type 2 diabetes and low body mass index [BMI] is very favorable and should be considered as a treatment option in carefully selected patients.”

The Cleveland Clinic researchers who conducted the study say it is the largest published series of bariatric surgery in patients with type 2 diabetes and a BMI of 35 kg/m² or less.

They evaluated 1,003 patients from North America with a BMI between 25 and 35 kg/m². The average BMI in the study cohort was 33.5 kg/m². Forty percent of patients were taking insulin injections and 60% were on oral medications for their diabetes before surgery.

Analysis showed that bariatric surgery was associated with a low rate of complications and mortality in these lower BMI patients. The 30-day postoperative mortality rate was 0.2% and the cumulative rate of postoperative adverse events was 4%; 1.6% of patients required reoperation within 30 days. The procedures averaged 110 minutes, and patients were discharged from the hospital within two days.

“We are seeing significant improvement or remission of type 2 diabetes in most lower-BMI patients,” said lead investigator Ali Aminian, MD, laparoscopic and bariatric surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic Digestive Disease Institute, in Ohio. “Currently, evidence suggests that baseline BMI is unrelated to diabetes remission following bariatric and metabolic surgery.

Source: Bariatric Surgery Safe, Effective for Lower-BMI Patients With Diabetes – General Surgery News