What is Metabolic Surgery?
The term Metabolic or sometimes Diabetes Surgery is used to describe the usage of surgical procedures to treat metabolic diseases, especially type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In contrast to bariatric surgery, metabolic surgery goal is to specifically address metabolic diseases (like T2DM) rather than obesity per se. Whereas bariatric surgery is generally performed in patients with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 40kg/m2, metabolic surgery could be performed in patients with type 2 diabetes with BMIs as low as 27 kg/m2 . Given the important and distinct implications for patient care, using standard, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass to treat type 2 diabetes in patients with BMI above 30 kg/m2 should be considered “metabolic/diabetes surgery” not “bariatric surgery”.