Complete surgical cure of diabetes in offing, claims expert

Varanasi, Dec 29 (UNI) The fearsome medical maxim 'diabetes is controllable but not curable' may well become a thing of past, if efforts by US surgeons to develop a special intestinal surgery fructify, a New York-based surgeon claimed here today.

''Diabetes can be cured completely, if the experts in the US embarked on developing the diabetes curing intestinal surgery succeed in their endeavour,'' Subhash Kini, Assistant Professor of Bariatric and Laproscopic surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, said.

Dr Kini is at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) here to attend ASICON-2006, the national conference of Association of Surgeons of India (ASI).

''There is a strong prospect of the special diabetes curing surgery being fully developed in the next six months. Once it is developed, diabetics, especially afflicted with Type II form of the disease, which is more common in India, are likely to be cured completely in a week's time,'' Dr Kini maintained.

Refusing to go into the nitty-gritty, the US surgeon of Indian origin said the surgery will eliminate the chances of excessive glucose formation in intestines, thus having a proper control over insulin level in the body.

India is sitting on a 'diabetes volcano' with three crore patients presently in the country, especially those representing the productive population. The disease also considered to be a 'silent killer' is likely to acquire epidemic proportions with a total 10 crore diabetics projected in India by 2010, Dr Kini claimed.

Diabetes affects the entire body ranging from causing diabetic retinopathy (blindness) to resulting in renal failure.

''If the surgery takes off successfully in six months' time, it will offer the unexpected ray of light to diabetics across the world,'' he said.

Dr Kini further said the surgery once in place was likely to provide cure especially to slim patients, but went on to say that surgeries like pancreatic transplant were best placed to cure Type I diabetes.

He also claimed once cured through intestinal surgery, diabetes will never strike the patient again.

About the surgical cure for patient afflicted with obesity and diabetes, Dr Kini said a surgery termed Gastric Bypass (GB) was already being successfully done to free patients from the twin problems of obesity and diabetes. ''Annually, two lakh GB surgeries are being successfully done in the US, while the same surgery costing around Rs three lakh has also been started at select centres in Delhi and Mumbai.'' Through the GB, while the excess flab is reduced gradually over a period of one to two years, the problem of diabetes is cured in a week's time. ''The success rate of GB surgeries, however, is 83 per cent only,'' he pointed out.

Dr Kini, however, said 70 per cent of GB surgeries were presently being conducted to rid patients of obesity and the remaining 30 per cent chose surgical cure of diabetes plus obesity.

With GB already in place for diabetics also afflicted with obesity and a specialised intestinal surgery offering cent per cent cure to the same lifestyle disease being developed in a six month time, the days are not far when diabetes will be totally curable.

Earlier, Dr Kini gave a guest lecture on 'Can surgery cure diabetes' on the penultimate day of the national conference of surgeons.

UNI ARS VS KD KN1738