Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in women gets reduced with weight-reduction surgery

The risk for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in a woman gets reduced if she goes through Bariatric (weight-reduction) Surgery before pregnancy and delivery, revealed a study. The authors, led by Anne E. Burke, MD, MPH, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, Maryland, reported, "Our findings identify bariatric surgery as a unique strategy to prevent GDM". The data has been reported in the current issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Study 

The researchers compared the rates of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and its related outcomes (cesarean delivery, macrosomia, shoulder dystocia, peripartum infection, postpartum hemorrhage, and fetal demise) in women who delivered infants a mean of 20.9 months after bariatric surgery to similar outcomes in women who delivered their babies a mean of 18.5 months before undergoing the surgery.

Results 

The researchers identified 346 women who delivered before undergoing bariatric surgery (the prebariatric delivery group) and 354 women who gave birth afterward (the postbariatric delivery group). When they did undergo surgery, 75% of the women in the prebariatric group and 87% in the postbariatric group had a bypass procedure. Adjustable banding procedures were more common among women in the prebariatric group (9% vs 3%).

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus occurred in 94 (27%) of the women in the prebariatric group compared with 28 (8%) in the postbariatric group, for an odds ratio of 0.23 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.15 - 0.36) associated with GDM after bariatric surgery.

According to the researchers, at least 7% of all pregnancies in the US are affected by Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.