For many years we have known about obesity surgery or bariatric surgery and how this surgery solves type 2 diabetes. Recently, the concept of diabetes surgery or metabolic surgery has emerged to treat type 2 diabetes in overweight, non morbidly obese patients. Dr. Resa and his team, from the Montpellier Clinic in Zaragoza, dedicated exclusively to obesity and diabetes surgery and to the medical control of cardiovascular risk, have become an international reference in the resolution of diabetes and obesity.
What is metabolic surgery?
Metabolic surgery is surgery that acts on the digestive system and produces metabolic changes with which health benefits are obtained by improving or eliminating diabetes, dyslipidemia, arterial hypertension, etc. This new concept is mainly aimed at treating type 2 diabetes and preventing cardiovascular risk: heart attacks and strokes, retinal or kidney damage and ischemia of the lower extremities.
What does the surgery consist of?
We can perform several techniques, always by laparoscopy, but the ones that offer the best results are bypasses. We prefer the gastroileal bypass. This procedure consists of diverting the food from the upper part of the stomach to a more distal part of the intestine. By doing this bypass, the food does not go all the way through and less sugar and fat is absorbed.
This technique costs us 30 minutes to perform, with a very fast recovery, painless and with a hospital stay of less than 48 hours after the operation. In addition, this procedure has an interesting peculiarity to achieve quality of life: the patient can eat normally, he/she does not need to reduce the intake much as in the case of stomach reductions.
How do patients feel after surgery?
Recovery is very fast and the decrease in blood sugar is progressive. Some patients abandon the medication upon discharge, many within the first month. Most qualify the phenomenon as “a miracle”. The change of life is total. Weight is lost and throughout their evolution about 90% stop all types of medication, including insulin, which in the long term will mean lower cardiometabolic risk and better survival, with a better quality of life, by preventing the excess of sugar in the blood from damaging the vessels.