Abstract
BACKGROUND: Long-term anti-diabetic effects of BPD in overweight or class 1 obese T2DM patients were investigated reporting the results at 10 years after BPD performed in severely non-obese T2DM patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty T2DM patients with BMI lower than 35 kg/m(2) were investigated at 1, 5, and 10 years after BPD, and the results are compared with those of 30 T2DM patients followed for 10 years on pharmacological and/or behavioral conventional therapy. RESULTS: Mean levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG) and serum glycated hemoglobin (HbA1(C)) showed a marked reduction 1 year after BPD, values remaining slightly above the diabetic range throughout the entire follow-up. T2DM remission was observed in about 50% of the cases at 5 and 10 years after the operation. In 16 patients (53%), severe BPD-related complications developed, in ten cases requiring a surgical revision of the operation. In the BPD group, one patient died for malignant lymphoma and two patients after surgical revision. Within the control group, during the 10-year follow-up, no changes in the diabetic status were observed, being the FBG and HbA1(C) mean values higher than those recorded in the BPD patients at any follow-up time. All T2DM subjects of the control group were alive at the end of the 10-year follow-up. CONCLUSION: Despite satisfactory long-term metabolic outcomes, these data indicate that BPD should be used with caution as a metabolic procedure in the treatment of T2DM in overweight or class 1obese patients.