Metabolic surgery, weight regain and diabetes re-emergence

The poor success of clinical treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM2) increased interest in metabolic surgery, which has been considered a promising alternative for the control of obese or non-obese diabetics. However, there is still no long-term follow-up to evaluate the duration of diabetes remission, and if weight regain would be associated to recurrence.

1) To describe the results of diabetic patients with a BMI < 30 and < 35 kg/m² submitted to the following types of metabolic surgery: ileal interposition and sleeve gastrectomy, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), adjustable gastric banding, duodeno-jejunal exclusion and duodeno-jejunal bypass; 2) to evaluate the possible relapse of diabetes after occurrence of weight regain on long-term after bariatric surgery.

An expositive and historical literature review about metabolic surgery in diabetic patients with BMI < 30 and < 35 kg/m² was conducted, and systematic review of the association between disease relapse and weight regain after bariatric surgery.

After analysis of 188 published papers on Medline until 2010, three papers were selected, which included 269 patients who underwent RYGB. Pre-operatory BMI was between 37 and 60 kg/m² and follow-up of three to 16 years.

1) Two studies showed association between weight regain and recurrence of type 2 diabetes, while the third did not show this association when comparing groups with and without weight regain; 2) metabolic surgery has shown adequate control of T2DM2 in class I obese subjects; however, the non-obese group still need a long-term evaluation, considering the risk of diabetes recurrence when after weight regain.