Lap Band Surgery Less Likely to Leave Patients Headed Towards Diabetes

According to findings presented at the American Physiological Society’s annual meeting in Washington, DC, Dr. Joan F. Carroll of the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth suggests that laparoscopic gastric banding surgery (“lap banding”) doesn’t reduce patients’ sensitivity to insulin (a predictor of diabetes) the way gastric bypass does…

In the operation Carroll and her team are investigating, known medically as laparoscopic gastric banding surgery, an elastic band is placed around the stomach, restricting the amount of food the stomach can comfortably hold. Another procedure, surgical gastric bypass, has been shown to help reduce the body’s resistance to insulin — often a prelude to full-blown diabetes — before major weight loss has taken place, but less is known about how lap band surgery affects insulin resistance.
To investigate, Carroll and her team have been following 37 lap band patients for up to one year. Those followed for six months have lost 23 kilograms (51 pounds), on average, while average weight loss for those who have been followed for a year is 34 kg (75 pounds).
Their level of insulin resistance had fallen by 60 percent after six months, she told Reuters

The strange part is that there’s no reason either procedure should directly affect insulin sensitivity.
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