A Mechanistic Look at Diabetes Surgery
Executive Summary
The notion of how Roux-en-Y achieves weight loss and reverses diabetes is changing. Francesco Rubino, MD, chief of gastrointestinal metabolic surgery at Cornell University's Weill Cornell Medical College is at the forefront of diabetes surgery. Rubino's diabetes surgery program aims to tease out the mechanisms by which gastric bypass reverses diabetes. Here, an interview with Dr. Rubino.
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The American Society for Bariatric Surgery recently changed its name to the American Society for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, in recognition of the link between obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Published data has long shown that in many cases, when morbidly obese patients with Type 2 diabetes lose weight--through gastric bypass surgery or other means--their glucose levels return to normal. That's old news. But something new is happening: bariatric surgeons and companies with implantable devices originally intended for weight loss are publishing data that shows a reversal in Type 2 diabetes, sometimes independently of a reduction in weight, by some other mechanisms as yet unproven. In September, the "First World Congress On Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes" convened the clinical community and industry to discuss new treatment strategies.
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