Biliopancreatic diversion for severe obesity: long-term weight maintenance and occurrence of nutritional complications are two facets of the same coin.

BACKGROUND: Despite the widespread clinical use of hypoabsorptive metabolic bariatric surgery, very long-term outcomes are still lacking. The aim of the study was to assess the long-term safety and efficacy of biliopancreatic diversion at 30 years in patients with class 3 obesity (BMI over 40 kg/m2). METHODS: This retrospective single-centre study used data from a prospectively collected database on a sample of consecutive patients submitted to biliopancreatic diversion with a minimum follow-up of 30 years. Outcomes assessed included overall survival, long-term weight loss and weight maintenance, remission of obesity-related co-morbidities, and short- and long-term surgical and/or nutritional or metabolic complications. RESULTS: Among 199 consecutive patients (136 female, 63 male) who had surgery between November 1992 and April 1994, the mean age at operation was 38 (range 14-69) years and mean preoperative BMI was 48.7 (32.0-74.3) kg/m2. At baseline, 91 of 199 patients (45.7%) had type 2 diabetes. At 20 and 30 years, 122 (61%) and 38 (19%) of the 199 patients respectively were available for follow-up. At 30 years, the overall mortality rate was 12% (23 of 199). Surgical complications were concentrated in the short-term follow-up, whereas nutritional or metabolic complications increased progressively over time. A nutritional complication was diagnosed in 73 of 122 patients (60%) at 20 years and 28 of 38 (74%) at 30 years. Weight loss and glycaemic control were maintained throughout the follow-up; mean % total weight loss was 32.8 (range 14.1-50.0) at 1 year and 37.7 (range 16.7-64.8) at 30 years. One patient presented with recurrence of type 2 diabetes at 20 and 30 years; there were no patients with new-onset type 2 diabetes. CONCLUSION: Biliopancreatic diversion leads to good and sustained weight maintenance up to 30 years with low perioperative risk, but at the cost of a high long-term prevalence of nutritional complications.

Glycosylated haemoglobin (A1c) best values for type 2 diabetes in the battlefield much ado about nothing? (apparently).

Despite intensive research, therapy of diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) is far from be effective. The most important unresolved issue is to establish a safe glycosylated hemoglobin C (A1c) value well balanced between benefit and side effects. As a result different guidelines suggest different A1c targets generating confusion for patients and clinicians. Here we report two observations which might support a relaxed A1c as suggested by American college of physician (ACP).

Biliopancreatic diversion in nonobese patients with type 2 diabetes: impact and mechanisms.

CONTEXT: Diabetes remission is frequent after biliopancreatic diversion (BPD) in morbidly obese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Data, mechanisms, and clinical indications in nonobese T2D patients are scanty. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess remission and investigate insulin sensitivity and ß-cell function after BPD in nonobese patients with long-standing T2D. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS: This was a clinical research study comparing 15 T2D patients (aged 55 ± 1 years, duration of 16 ± 2 years, body mass index of 28.3 ± 0.6 kg/m², glycosylated hemoglobin 8.6% ± 1.3%) with 15 gender-, age-, and body mass index-matched nondiabetic controls. Before surgery and 2 months and 1 year later, a 3-hour oral glucose tolerance test, a 5-hour mixed-meal test, and a 3-hour euglycemic clamp were performed. INTERVENTION: The intervention included a BPD (distal gastrectomy, proximal ileum anastomosed to remaining stomach, biliopancreatic limb anastomosed to ileum 50 cm from the ileocecal valve). RESULTS: Glycemia improved in all patients, but remission (glycosylated hemoglobin < 6.5% and normal oral glucose tolerance test) occurred in 6 of 15 patients. Insulin resistance (19.8 ± 0.8 µmol · min⁻¹ · kg(ffm)⁻¹, P < .001 vs 40.9 ± 5.3 of controls) resolved already at 2 months (34.2 ± 2.8) and was sustained at 1 year (34.7 ± 1.6), although insulin-mediated suppression of endogenous glucose production remained impaired. In contrast, ß-cell glucose sensitivity (19 [12] pmol · min⁻¹ · m⁻² · mM⁻¹ vs 96 [73] of controls, P < .0001) rose (P = .02) only to 31 [26] at 1 year and was lower in nonremitters (16 [18]) than remitters (46 [33]). CONCLUSIONS: In nonobese patients with long-standing T2D, BPD improves metabolic control but induces remission in only approximately 40% of patients. Peripheral insulin sensitivity is restored early after surgery and similarly in remitters and nonremitters, indicating a weight-independent effect of the operation. The initial extent of ß-cell incompetence is the main predictor of the metabolic outcome.

Biliary pancreatic diversion and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding in morbid obesity: their long-term effects on metabolic syndrome and on cardiovascular parameters.

BACKGROUND: Bariatric surgery is able to improve glucose and lipid metabolism, and cardiovascular function in morbid obesity. Aim of this study was to compare the long-term effects of malabsorptive (biliary pancreatic diversion, BPD), and restrictive (laparoscopic gastric banding, LAGB) procedures on metabolic and cardiovascular parameters, as well as on metabolic syndrome in morbidly obese patients. METHODS: 170 patients studied between 1989 and 2001 were called back after a mean period of 65 months. 138 patients undergoing BPD (n=23) or LAGB (n=78), and control patients (refusing surgery and treated with diet, n=37) were analysed for body mass index (BMI), blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides, blood pressure, heart rate, and ECG indexes (QTc, Cornell voltage-duration product, and rate-pressure-product). RESULTS: After a mean 65 months period, surgery was more effective than diet on all items under evaluation; diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome disappeared more in surgery than in control patients, and new cases appeared only in controls. BPD was more effective than LAGB on BMI, on almost all cardiovascular parameters, and on cholesterol, not on triglyceride and blood glucose. Disappearance of diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome was similar with BPD and with LAGB, and no new cases were observed. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that BPD, likely due to a greater BMI decrease, is more effective than LAGB in improving cardiovascular parameters, and similar to LAGB on metabolic parameters, in obese patients. The greater effect on cholesterol levels is probably due to the different mechanism of action.

Long-term control of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the other major components of the metabolic syndrome after biliopancreatic diversion in patients with BMI < 35 kg/m2.

BACKGROUND: Bariatric operations are the most powerful means of curing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and the other major components of the metabolic syndrome. Despite the very frequent occurrence of metabolic disturbances in patients with BMI from 30 to 35, there is a general reluctance to operate on these patients, as their disease is considered less severe. METHODS: 7 T2D obese patients with mean BMI < 35 underwent BPD between 1976 and 1996 at the Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria San Martino of Genoa, Italy. Mean age was 49 years, mean body weight 91 kg, and mean waist circumference 115 (M) and 98 (F) cm. The mean follow-up was 13 (10-18) years. All 7 patients had abnormally high values of serum triglyceride, serum cholesterol, and arterial pressure. RESULTS: In all patients, serum glucose was normalized at 1,2, and 3 years. In 5 patients, a slight increase of serum glucose above 125 mg/dl was observed at or around 5 years, the values being maintained at all subsequent times, with no one value higher than 160 mg ever being recorded. The other 2 patients showed full resolution of diabetes at all follow-up times. Both serum cholesterol and triglyceride values fell to normal 1 year after BPD, and remained within the normal range in all 7 patients during the entire follow-up observation. Arterial pressure normalized in 6 cases and was improved in 1 case. No patient had excessive weight loss at any postoperative time. CONCLUSIONS: T2D patients with BMI < 35 have very severe metabolic disturbances. Surgical therapy for these patients is warranted, and it should be performed as soon as possible, before the rapid evolution of the pattern leads them to a point where even the most effective metabolic surgery operation could be insufficient to yield complete and permanent control of their diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes and weight loss following biliopancreatic diversion for obesity.

BACKGROUND: The authors investigated the weight loss and maintenance in type 2 diabetic obese patients undergoing biliopancreatic diversion (BPD). METHODS: Two series of diabetic and non-diabetic obese patients matched for gender, age and baseline body mass index (BMI) were evaluated prior to BPD, on the occasion of the regular follow-up visit at 1, 2 and 3 years following the operation, and at the fifth postoperative year. At each follow-up point, body weight (BW), BMI, and serum glucose concentration were measured. RESULTS: In all type 2 diabetic patients, the serum glucose level fell to within the normal range at the first postoperative year and remained within normal limits without any medication throughout all the follow-up period. In preoperatively diabetic subjects, mean values of BW and BMI were closely similar to those of non-diabetic subjects at all follow-up points, and the stabilization weight was independently related to age and to initial BW values. CONCLUSIONS: In obese patients with type 2 diabetes, the glucose level steadily normalized in every case following BPD, and values remained unchanged throughout the follow-up period. After the operation, the type 2 diabetic obese patients experienced the same stable weight reduction as their non-diabetic counterparts.

Long-term effect of biliopancreatic diversion on blood pressure in hypertensive obese patients.

BACKGROUND: The weight loss surgically induced by gastroplasty or gastric banding has only a transitory effect on the arterial hypertension of the severely obese patients, and a prevalence of hypertension similar to that of controls has been reported 8 years after the operation. METHODS: We studied the effects of biliopancreatic diversion in a series of 73 severely obese patients with preoperative hypertension throughout a 10-year follow-up period. Body weight dropped from 135.5 kg to 84.8 kg and remained substantially unchanged during the entire 10-year period, hypertension resolved in 41 subjects within the first postoperative year and the resolution rate increased slightly and progressively with time: at 10 years only 15 subjects were still hypertensive. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) value decreased within the first postoperative year as well as the pulse pressure (mean +/- standard deviation from 168 +/- 25 to 143 +/- 22 mm Hg, from 105 +/- 18 to 88 +/- 13 mm Hg, and from 65 +/- 16 to 50 +/- 13 mm Hg, respectively) and remained essentially unchanged throughout all the follow-up; 10 years after surgery the systolic BP and pulse pressure values (127 +/- 14 mm Hg and 42 +/- 6 mm Hg, respectively) were significantly lower than those observed at shorter term. CONCLUSIONS: In severely obese patients with arterial hypertension, the weight loss determined by biliopancreatic diversion in most cases is accompanied by the normalization of BP, which remains into physiological range until very long term.

Thirteen years of follow-up in patients with adjustable silicone gastric banding for obesity: weight loss and constant rate of late specific complications.

BACKGROUND: Despite its simplicity, safety and good short-term results, progressive weight regain and a high incidence of complications have been reported after the adjustable silicone gastric banding (ASGB). The aim of this study is to evaluate the long-term results of this operation in our patient population. METHODS: Between 1990 and 1996, 45 morbidly obese patients underwent insertion of an ASGB. The trend of the patients' BMI over time was studied using a linear mixed effect model adjusted for the preoperative BMI. So as to estimate the cumulative probability of band removal and the cumulative hazard function, Lambda(t) Kaplan-Meier analysis was used. RESULTS: 1 year after the operation, the average BMI was 79% of its preoperative value, which then increased linearly over time. The slope of the regression line was estimated at beta =0.42, indicating an average increase of 0.42 BMI units per year. 27 bands (60%) were removed because of specific late complications. The cumulative risk of band removal increased linearly with time. The hazard rate was estimated to be lambda =0.008 events/patient/month, corresponding to 0.1 events/patient/year. CONCLUSIONS: ASGB yielded good short-term results, but the progressive weight regain and constant risk of complications in the long term tend to nullify the optimism.

Radiology of patients with vertical banded gastroplasty.

BACKGROUND: The authors evaluated the usefulness of routine traditional radiology in the management of patients submitted to VBG. METHODS: Radiological findings in 65 subjects who had undergone VBG were evaluated. Post-surgical clinical and radiological examinations were performed 3 days, 1, 4 and 12 months after surgery. Upper GI symptoms, gastroesophageal imaging and 80% solid meal pouch emptying time were recorded. RESULTS: The routine postoperative study, in the absence of clinical symptoms, showed no unsuspected complication in any patient, both in the early and in the late postoperative period. There was no significant correlation at 4 and 12 months between emptying time and duration of satiation, emptying time and percent excess weight loss (%EWL), and duration of satiation and %EWL. CONCLUSIONS: Traditional radiological studies can be safely omitted from both the immediate postoperative period and from the long-term follow-up in asymptomatic VBG patients. The studies were not helpful in understanding functional changes leading to weight loss after VBG.

Serum leptin level and restrained eating: study with the Eating Disorder Examination.

Serum leptin concentrations in obese patients are influenced at short-term by a reduction of food intake. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship between serum leptin level and eating behavior. The eating behavior and the food and shape attitudes of a group of obese women were assessed by the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE), and the subscale scores were correlated with serum leptin levels. No difference in serum leptin level was found between obese patients with binge eating disorder (BED) and their nonbingeing counterparts. Considering all patients, the serum leptin levels positively correlated with the body mass index values (BMI), and the EDE subscales scores were positively interrelated. After controlling for BMI, serum leptin level was negatively correlated with the EDE Restraint score and positively correlated with the EDE Shape Concern score. The findings of this investigation indicate that in obese women serum leptin level and the occurrence of binge eating are unrelated. Furthermore, this study also found that the relationship between serum leptin level and restraint over food intake observed in eating disordered patients and in overweight preadolescent girls is shared by obese adult women. In addition, the positive relationship between EDE Shape Concern and serum leptin concentration suggests that the restrained eating might be the cause rather the consequence of the low leptin production.