The Clinic has a tradition of naming the top ten medical advances that doctors there believe will make it big in the year ahead, and this year bariatric surgery was at the top of the list.
It’s a procedure done to help patients lose weight, but the Clinic is calling attention to its effectiveness in treating diabetes.
Dr. Philip Schauer performs bariatric surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and was the lead author of a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine that provided evidence of the surgery’s benefits.
SCHAUER: This is great news for patients who have type 2 diabetes, particularly those who are not in good control, because it’s a new option for them that can make dramatic improvements in their diabetes and potentially dramatically reduce their risk of developing these horrible complications.
Dr. Ronald Magliola, an internist at Metrohealth who works with diabetic patients, says bariatric surgery looks very promising but cautions that there are real risks with surgery—including complications like infection, bleeding, and pain—and these should be considered alongside its potential benefits.
Other innovations highlighted at this year’s summit included neurostimulation for migraines, new methods for quickly identifying the type of bacterial infection, and new drugs for treating prostate cancer.