New Gundersen Lutheran study shows dramatic difference in blood sugar control for obese patients wit

July 1, 2008 - PRLog -- Obese patients with type 2 diabetes who undergo a weight-loss surgery called Roux-en-Y gastric bypass are able to significantly reduce their use of blood sugar medications. That’s just one outcome researchers at Gundersen Lutheran Health System in La Crosse, Wis., found when looking at the effects of obesity surgery on the blood sugar control of patients with type 2 diabetes. The research team recently presented their study findings at the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) annual meeting.
    As Shanu N. Kothari, MD, Gundersen Lutheran bariatric surgeon and member of the research team, explains, “Our research revealed two important findings that show physicians need to strongly consider gastric bypass for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in appropriate patients.”
    First, the Gundersen Lutheran researchers found obese patients with type 2 diabetes who undergo laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery have significant and sustained improvement in their hemoglobin A1c levels. These are the levels physicians use to measure how well patients’ blood glucose (blood sugar) levels have been managed over a period of time because those levels are not impacted by the daily fluctuations of blood glucose.
    "Secondly, and just as important, the patients who had gastric bypass surgery had a significant reduction in their use of oral blood sugar medications and/or insulin (glycemic medication) when compared to obese patients who are conventionally treated for type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Kothari says.
     The researchers analyzed 51 patients who underwent laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery at Gundersen Lutheran Health System from September 2001 through December 2005, and compared them to a control group of obese patients who underwent conventional treatment for type 2 diabetes. Compared to those patients, the surgery patients showed a significant improvement in their hemoglobin A1c levels, with a 21.1 percent decrease in their average levels one year post-surgery. This average was maintained in patients for whom the researchers had three year post-surgery data. In comparison, the conventionally treated group remained relatively stable, with hemoglobin A1c levels ranging from 7 to 7.8 percent (the goal for well controlled diabetic patients is less than 7 percent).
    “Some of the most dramatic changes we found between the two groups came in the patients who required medications to control their glucose levels,” Dr. Kothari comments.  
    The percentage of patients who required medications decreased dramatically in the surgery group. Before surgery, 84.3 percent of these patients were on oral medications and/or insulin compared to only 22.4 percent one year post-surgery and 26.1 percent three years post-surgery. In contrast, the conventional treatment group actually saw an increase in those needing oral medications and/or insulin, with 66.7 percent of these patients on medications initially, and 82 percent of patients on medications one year and 83.3 percent three years after the initial hemoglobin A1c levels were taken.
     “Our study shows that patients who are treated with gastric bypass surgery have better control of their type 2 diabetes after three years than those who are treated conventionally,” Dr. Kothari says. “Even if a patient’s diabetes is under control, physicians need to determine what’s in the patient’s best interest in the long-term and consider using gastric bypass as a treatment method sooner rather than later.”
    Dr. Kothari, his colleagues and patients are available for interviews and to provide more information. To schedule an interview, please contact Chris Stauffer, Gundersen Lutheran External Communications, at (608) 775-6622 or Janelle Roghair, Gundersen Lutheran External Communications, at (608) 775-5471.

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Gundersen Lutheran Health System has more than 650 physicians and associate staff and more than 6,000 support personnel in a system of regional clinics and hospitals in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.