T2DM Initially Remits in Majority Who Undergo Gastric Bypass

THURSDAY, Feb. 7, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is associated with high levels of type 2 diabetes remission at one year, although 27 percent relapse after five years, according to a study published online Feb. 6 in Diabetologia.

Lene R. Madsen, from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and colleagues conducted a population-based study of 1,111 individuals with type 2 diabetes and obesity treated by RYGB from 2006 to 2015 and 1,074 matched individuals with type 2 diabetes who did not undergo surgery.

The researchers found that 74 percent of the RYGB cohort experienced diabetes remission at one-year follow-up; after five years, 27 percent had relapsed. Age >50 years, diabetes duration longer than five years, use of glucose-lowering drugs other than metformin, and baseline hemoglobin A1c >7.0 percent were predictors of nonremission. The RYGB cohort had a significantly lower risk for microvascular complications (hazard ratio, 0.53; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.38 to 0.73) and a statistically nonsignificant lower risk for macrovascular complications (hazard ratio, 0.76; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.49 to 1.18) compared with the nonsurgical cohort. At one year, diabetes remission versus nonremission correlated with a significantly reduced risk for microvascular complications (hazard ratio, 0.43; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.25 to 0.72) and a nonsignificantly reduced risk for macrovascular complications (hazard ratio, 0.76; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.40 to 1.45).

“RYGB does remit type 2 diabetes and is associated with a reduced risk of microvascular, and possibly macrovascular, complications,” the authors write.

The study was partially funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Abstract/Full Text