By Annette R. Karnash, R.N., M.N.
Gastric by-pass surgery can improve or eliminate type 2 diabetes in obese individuals according to University of Pittsburgh researchers. Patients lose weight because their smaller stomachs can’t take in as many calories. Eighty three percent of obese patients with type 2 diabetes who underwent the surgery saw improvement in and even total reversal of their disease. They achieved excellent biomedical control and were able to reap clinical benefits of withdrawing from most if not all anti-diabetic medications, including insulin.
Younger patients with less severe disease may gain more from the surgery by circumventing years of progressive debilitating disease. Heart patients who have diabetes are likely to do better after having angioplasty or stent placement, if they control blood sugar levels. Those with diabetes are known to be at greater risk for restenosis than non-diabetics. A study performed at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, looked at 239 patients having angioplasty or stenting, including 179 people with type 2 diabetes. Sixty non-diabetics composed the control group. Each persons glycosolated hemoglobin (HBA1C) was taken before catheterization. The patients with diabetes who maintained the strict control had a significantly lower rate of repeat procedures within a year compared with patients with diabetes whose HBA1C exceeded 7%.
Only 15% of those with optimal glucose control required revascularization, compared to 34% of those with suboptimal HBA1C levels. The well controlled group also had lower rates of recurrent angina and cardiac related hospitalizations at 12 month follow-up.
