Antidiabetic Effects of Gastric Banding Surgery in Morbidly Obese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

This study was performed to investigate the effect of gastric banding surgery on the improvement of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) of morbidly obese (MO) patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with the consideration that obesity was associated with insulin resistance and T2DM. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 38 MO with T2DM patients and 50 MO patients. Pre-surgery and post-surgery data were analyzed a year later. The medical data from these patients, including sex, age, height, weight, body composition, HbA1c, triglyceride, total cholesterol, aspartate transaminase (AST), and alanine transaminase (ALT) were measured. There were significant reductions of body weight and body mass index (BMI), body fat, body fat percentage, waist-hip ratio, visceral fat, and obesity in each group before and after gastric banding surgery. Results of AST, ALT, and HbA1c had significant reductions in each group. For HbA1c, treatment rate was 71% in the MO group with T2DM with significant reduction of 22.8%. It is thought that a gastric banding surgery is one of the breakthrough methods not only for weight loss but also for the prevention of complication of the obese patients with T2DM. Thus, gastric banding surgery could be effective in controlling HbA1c in obese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.