BANGALORE: With the country being home to over six crore diabetic patients, the latest form of advanced treatment has come as a big relief. Introducing Metabolic Surgery and its beneficial effects that have created global ripples in the field of health care, various groups of doctors got together at the Metabolic Surgery Consensus Summit in the city on Sunday.
The Bariatric Surgery was introduced in India by Dr M Ramesh of A V Hospital almost four years ago and bringing this latest form of treatment to India now.
Speaking on the occasion, he said, “Obesity and diabetes are on the rise in India. It is important as doctors that we embrace every possible treatment for diabetes today. Across the globe, medical practitioners are waking up to this new form of treatment and with the growing number of patients in our country too, we think this is the right time to introduce this technologically advanced surgery here.”
The Metabolic Surgery Consensus Summit was a forum for the medical fraternity to learn more about the surgery and its effects. However, doctors pointed out that this surgery is effective only on type II diabetes.
“Four years ago, when we introduced Bariatric surgery here, we learnt that diabetics benefited from this weight loss surgery. Upon studying the pattern closely, we understood that this surgery helps treat diabetes surprisingly well. Metabolic surgery takes place by splitting of intestines. One part of the intestine is brought to the front and there’s inter-positioning. This helps change the circuit in which food passes through the system,” explained Dr Ramesh.
Also present at the summit were Dr Aureo L de Paula, Bariatric surgeon from Brazil who pioneered the procedure and has been conducting it for close to eight years in Brazil and Dr V K Aatre, former scientific advisor for Union defence minister.
Inaugurating the summit, De Paula said, “Since there is a huge prevalence in the country and the disease is growing at an alarming rate, it is time this treatment is introduced here.”
Further, highlighting the benefits of this kind of treatment, Dr V K Aatre who presided over the function said that it is important to educate and spread awareness about metabolic surgery to the public who can avail this treatment now.
However, when questioned about the cost of this surgery and whether an average Indian can benefit from it, Dr Ramesh said, “The surgery in its current form costs anywhere between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh.”
Ashok Kheny, Managing Director of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), praised the positive effects of the surgery as he had undergone it himself. He encouraged the introduction of this surgery in the villages, where people are unaware of diabetes. The summit had doctors presenting videos of the surgical procedure.