Appropriate Timing of Bariatric Surgery in Obese Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Kim, Kab Choong; Kim, Tae Ah; Kang, Won Me; Kim, Young Mi; Ahn, Soo Min

Abstract

To combat the associated pandemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, clinicians need every tool they can get. Currently, bariatric/metabolic surgery is widely accepted as the most effective treatment for weight loss and glycemic control. Nonetheless, the impact noted in clinical studies seems to have predominantly been on the numerical reductions of bodyweight and blood glucose level after surgery. Past and recent evidence about the role of bariatric surgery in the different stages of the clinical course of type 2 diabetes were presented in this paper. Given the evidence on the efficacy of bariatric surgery for obese patients with type 2 diabetes ranging from pre-diabetes through a long-standing diabetic state with established or end-stage macro- and micro-vascular complications, the overall conclusions are that end organ damage is expected to either stabilize or improve postoperatively in most cases. However, some of these clinical outcomes have not been assessed with a robust method, and many cases are not supported by randomized clinical trials. Available evidence strongly advocates in favor of bariatric surgery in the early phase of this course, possibly in the pre-diabetic or very early diabetic stages. To reserve surgery to more advanced and complicated stages of the disease seems to confer fewer benefits in the clinical course of diabetes and might expose these more frail patients to the possible side effects of a rapid weight loss.