Bariatric surgery for diabetes: When should you undergo the surgery?

If you are overweight or obese and are planning to control your blood glucose level, your doctor might recommend bariatric surgery. Unlike earlier, where bariatric surgery was mostly known to be a mere weight loss surgery, the surgery can also play a vital role in the management of the disease. Dr Ramen Goel, Director, Center of Bariatric & Metabolic Surgery, Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai, says that as per the 45th Annual Meet by the Association of Diabetes in India, it was decided that diabetics with BMI greater than 35 should be given an option of bariatric surgery. It means that every physician should offer the surgery as an option, which was not the case earlier. Here’s Dr Ramen Goel explains about bariatric surgery in diabetics.Here are 5 things you need to know before undergoing bariatric surgery.

When is it recommended?

1. If you are diabetic and have a BMI between 30 – 35, then surgery might be considered only if the patient fails to show any improvement with the medications and insulin. Here are all your questions about BMI answered.

2. If the BMI is more than 27.5 and the blood sugar is not under control for more than a year or two, then your expert might recommend undergoing a bariatric surgery to manage diabetes.

3. If you are obese with a BMI of more than 27.5, then it is mandatory for every expert to explain the significance of bariatric surgery to every patient.

4. If your BMI is above 35, then undergoing surgery might be the optimal treatment option to get your blood glucose levels within control. However, no expert can force the surgery on the patient.

The risk involved in the case of diabetics is the same as those seen in other obese people. Here are risks involved in bariatric surgery that you MUST know.

How does it help?

Dr Ramen Goel says that bariatric surgery causes numerous changes in the people with diabetes, which is dependent on how long the patient is suffering from the condition.

If you have been suffering from diabetes for more than ten years and are taking insulin to control blood glucose, then after the surgery, you might need only medications to control diabetes.

If you have been taking insulin for more than five years, then you might go off the insulin completely after the surgery. And you might only need medications to control diabetes.

If you were taking medications before the surgery and were finding it difficult to manage your glucose levels, then your blood glucose can be well within control after the surgery.

Hence, with early intervention, the chances of controlling diabetes with medications or only through diet and exercise are better than undergoing the surgery after 10 years after having been on medications.

Article Source: indiatoday.intoday.in