Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes (90%) and usually occurs after the age of 55. In this type of diabetes, there is not a lack of insulin, but a state of insulin dysfunction related to heredity but also to the excessive accumulation of fat in the body (obesity).
Diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death, as well as the most important predisposing factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events, blindness and chronic kidney failure. Of adult diabetics, 75%-80% eventually die from a heart attack or stroke.
Both patients and doctors are accustomed to consider diabetes mellitus as a condition that is treated in the initial stages by taking antidiabetic pills, and in advanced situations by taking insulin. The complete cure of the disease or its improvement was a collateral finding of the surgical treatment of obesity.
Recently, medical interest has been driven by the finding that significant remission or even cure of type 2 diabetes is observed after surgical weight loss. A number of recent studies, published in authoritative medical journals, emphasize the potential for treating dyslipidemias and type 2 diabetes through bariatric surgery.
For the successful development of the surgical treatment of diabetes, two things are important. The first is when a diabetic should be operated on and the second is which operation guarantees us better results and more safety. It should be noted that after the operation, the symptoms of diabetic neuropathy improve, while the further development of other complications of diabetes, such as nephropathy, retinopathy, peripheral vasculopathy, stops.
Since, therefore, surgery can provide a permanent solution to the issue of type II diabetes mellitus, as well as cardiometabolic syndrome, we must at least be informed.
Ioannis S. Terzis
General-Bariatric and Metabolic Surgeon
t. Director of the First Surgical Clinic Athens Naval Hospital
Director of Bariatric Clinic – Surgical Treatment of Diabetes
and Metabolic Diseases King Salman Specialist Hospital-Saudi Arabia.