Bariatric surgery reverses peripheral neuropathy in severely obese patients

They included 127 obese individuals who underwent bariatric surgery. At baseline and two years following surgery, participants underwent metabolic phenotyping and diabetes complication assessments.

The study summary includes the following:

• Seventy-nine participants with a mean age of 46 years completed in-person follow-up.
• Participants lost 31.0 kg.
• There was an improvement in all metabolic risk factors except BP and total cholesterol.
• One of the primary PN outcomes improved (IENFD proximal thigh, +3.4 ± 7.8. There was stability in CAN (E/I ratio −0.01 ± 0.1) and retinopathy.
• There was a greater reduction in fasting glucose tied to improvement in retinopathy.

Based on the results of our study, bariatric surgery reverses PN in individuals with obesity. This is attributed either to metabolic improvement or by the benefits of bariatric surgery.

More investigations are required for confirmation of these findings.

Further reading:

Reynolds, E.L., Watanabe, M., Banerjee, M. et al. The effect of surgical weight loss on diabetes complications in individuals with class II/III obesity. Diabetologia (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-023-05899-3