[Pharma clinics. How I treat...a diabetic patient with severe obesity]

Obesity plays a crucial role in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology and a major weight loss markedly improves glycaemic control. The common failure of classical treatments leads to the use of more aggressive weight-reduction approaches, such as very-low-calorie diets (VLCDs), anti-obesity drugs or even bariatric surgery. VLCDs are very successful in the short-term but rather disappointing in the long-term. Anti-obesity compounds only induce a modest mean weight reduction, even if some patients appear to be better responders. Interestingly, serotoninergic agents increase insulin sensitivity and glycaemic control, independently of weight loss. Bariatric surgery provides the most impressive results. In well-selected subjects, gastroplasty (either vertical ring gastroplasty or adjustable silicone gastric banding) generally induces a considerable weight loss which results in a remarkable and sustained glycaemic control improvement and allows the reduction, or even the suppression, of any antidiabetic treatment. This ultimate solution should not be neglected after failure of medical approaches, provided that the indication is correct, the surgical procedure is performed in a specialized centre and the followup is well organized by a multidisciplinary team.