Correlation between postoperative weight loss and diabetes mellitus remission: a meta-analysis.

Objective: This meta-analysis was conducted to determine the effect of percent excess weight loss (%EWL) after bariatric surgery on diabetes remission.

Methods: The Cochrane Library, PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL were searched. All reports on %EWL involving humans and published in English between 1 January 1992 and 1 September 2013 were included in the analysis.

Results: Eight studies involving 1,247 patients who underwent bariatric surgery were selected. %EWL was positively associated with remission rate (WMD = 11.15, 95 % CI: 6.73-15.56, p < 0.01) in the Caucasian population.

Conclusions: Patients with extensive weight loss were more likely to achieve T2DM remission after bariatric surgery. Further randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with uniform remission criterion should be performed to provide more reliable evidence.