Diabetes Breakthrough: One-Hour Procedure May Eliminate Need For Insulin

London: In a major breakthrough for diabetes patients, an endoscopic procedure could eliminate the need to take insulin.

According to a new study, an hour-long procedure that uses controlled electrical pulses to modify the lining of first part of the small intestine may help Type 2 diabetes patients from avoiding insulin use and still maintain glycemic control.

According to a study to be presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2023 in the US, over 37 million Americans suffer from blood sugar, of whom more than 90% have Type 2 diabetes.

“The potential for controlling diabetes with a single endoscopic treatment is spectacular… One of the biggest advantages of this treatment is that a single outpatient endoscopic procedure provides glycemic control, a potential improvement over drug treatment, which depends on patients taking their medication day in, day out,” said Celine Busch, lead researcher of the study.

The study saw 14 patients undergoing an endoscopic procedure in which alternating electrical pulses were delivered to the duodenum, a portion of the lining of small intestine just below the stomach.

The patients were discharged the same day following the hour-long procedure and placed on a calorie-controlled liquid diet for two weeks. They were then put on semaglutide, a diabetes medication, titrating up to 1 mg per week.

According to Busch, Semaglutide on its own sometimes allows patients with Type 2 diabetes to quit taking insulin, but only in about 20% of cases.

Twelve of the 14 patients, that is 86%, maintained good glycemic control without insulin for a year.

“While drug therapy is disease-controlling, it only reduces high blood sugar as long as the patient continues taking the medication,” said Amsterdam University Medical Center professor Jacques Bergman, who is principal investigator of the study.

“This one procedure is disease-modifying in that it reverses the body’s resistance to its own insulin, the root cause of Type 2 diabetes,” he added.

Type 2 diabetes is mostly seen in people over 45 years of age, but in recent years, children, teenagers and young adults are also developing it.