Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: is the chance of complete remission dependent on therapy and duration of insulin treatment?<||||>Rapid resolution of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a common feature after intestinal bypass surgery bypassing the duodenum and parts of the jejunum. However, the parameters determining the individual chance of remission are imprecisely defined. Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch and sleeve gastrectomy (BPD-DS) was performed in n = 86 patients with T2DM (mean age 50 years, range 26-68, 51 females; BMI 47 kg/m(2), range 26-71). The patients were retrospectively divided into 4 groups according to the treatment modality and the duration of insulin treatment preoperatively: n = 18 patients were treated with oral antidiabetic drugs only (group 1); n = 32, n = 24, and n = 12 patients were treated with insulin for less than 5 years, for 5-10 years, and for more than 10 years (groups 2, 3, and 4), respectively. At discharge from hospital, all patients of groups 1 and 2 were free of insulin usage, 30% and 75% of the patients of groups 3 and 4 used up to 48 units of insulin per day (mean 24, n = 16). After 1 year, only 4 patients of group 4 permanently required small amounts of insulin (mean 17 units per day) to keep blood glucose below 200 mg/dl. These 4 patients had been using insulin preoperatively for 13, 15, 22, and 25 years. In 3 of these 4 patients, fasting C-peptide was measured and found to be low (<1.2 ng/ml). The rate of complete remission of diabetes for the whole study population was 91%.
BPD-DS reliably causes rapid and complete remission of T2DM in all patients on oral antidiabetic drugs and in patients with insulin treatment for less than 5 years. In patients with insulin treatment longer than 5 or 10 years, complete remission rates decline to 88 and 66%, respectively. A low C-peptide preoperatively might be a specific adverse prognostic parameter for the chance of diabetes remission.