Summer Newsletter December 2011

Booth's Babble

Xmas greetings!

This year has been an interesting year for us. Numbers of patients are down probably because of the economic recession. Having said that the issues of weight and it's complications are still very much to the fore in the Public mind.

We have noticed a definite swing in our practice towards more patients wanting sleeve gastrectomy opposed to gastric bypass and gastric banding.

Interestingly there are very few trials in the literature comparing these operations and we rely on centres to publish their own results to give us a feel for how good these operations are and what complications these cause.

Unfortunately many studies are short term and many patients get lost to follow‐up. This tends to make judgments on long term outcomes speculative at best.

Randomised Controlled Trial comparing Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy and Laparoscopic Roux‐en‐Y Gastric bypass in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes and Obesity.

For these reasons we are embarking on a randomized controlled trial for patients with type 2 diabetes an obesity, comparing sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass. Patients who volunteer will be randomised once anaesthetized in theatre. Patients will not know what operation they have had until the completion of the study. This avoids bias and the risk of preconceptions affecting outcome. The assessors will also be unaware of what operation the patients have had. This is a long term study and we hope to follow patients for a minimum of 5 years after surgery.

Apart from diabetes control and weight loss we will look at complications of surgery, nutritional issues, body composition including bone density and some other tests of interest. At the completion of the study patients will have access to their results.

There are strict entry criteria. You must be diabetic for at least 6 months, motivated and be under 50 years of age. Please read the criteria carefully if you or somebody you know might be interested. This is a publicly funded trial the only costs would be buying Optifast , petrol money and some of your time!

We believe this is an exciting study to do particularly as it is a New Zealand study and highly relevant to our local people. It is being conducted through the Waitemata District Health Board and is publicly funded. Details are on the WDHB Intranet and www.healthpoint.co.nz. Referrals will need to be made by general practitioners to the address given and the proposed study quoted. Your GP practice nurse should be able to access you information which we have sent out in electronic form to.

Wishing you all a very Merry and active Christmas. And best wishes for 2012.

We look forward to seeing you again!

Don't forget to take your multivitamins!

Michael

  Summer Newsletter December 2011

You will need the Adobe Reader to view and print these documents.