The surgical procedure used in the study is Gastric banding. It involves placing a plastic band around the top portion of the patient’s stomach, creating a pouch minimizing the size of the stomach. The ultimate outcome of the procedure is substantial weight loss.

Obesity in America is reaching never before seen levels, said Bethesda’s Command Diabetes Educator, Diabetes Nurse Practitioner Susan Marullo. Type II diabetes, she said, is linked to uncontrolled weight gain and sedentary lifestyles.

Army Maj. Babette Glister, a staff doctor in Bethesda’s Endocrinology Clinic, said diabetes is not curable. Despite the promising results, she said, the medical community still holds concerns for surgical procedure until more research is completed.

‘‘‘Cure’ is a strong word to use because [diabetic] patients still have the tendency to be insulin resistant [even after weight loss],” Glister said. ‘‘Giving patients the impression that they are never going to require treatment again is worrying. In two years with a recurrence of the weight lost, these patients could have a recurrence of their diabetes.”

The randomized study is the first of its kind to compare diabetes in patients who have undergone surgery versus traditional care. Scientists consider randomized studies to yield the highest-quality evidence.

Cmdr. Patrick Clyde, Bethesda’s director of Endocrinology, said there are several complications Type II diabetics should consider.

‘‘We do not know if this [weight loss] procedure will prevent the complications of diabetes, heart attacks or strokes. We presume it might, but [the study] does not show it’s going to prevent complications,” Clyde said. ‘‘It’s a hopeful thing though, something to definitely consider. It’s a lot safer than other surgeries, but we don’t know how effective it is long-term.”

Glister said there are several opportunities for diabetics to gain control of their disease utilizing other methods. Before making the decision to have surgery, diabetics should try alternative methods, she said. Results from the procedures vary from person to person.

‘‘There were patients [in the study] who subsequently did not receive the desired benefit regarding the degree of weight loss,” Glister said. ‘‘There are some newer drugs on the market that may potentially allow longer lasting results without surgery.”

Glister said the focus should be on more modern methods of weight loss rather than surgically treating patients. She said ‘‘going under the knife” should only be considered as a last resort.

Marullo said medication and surgical procedures can limit the disease, but diabetes never goes away. Patients need to have substantial life style interventions, such as working on weight loss with physical activity and diets.

‘‘Regardless of where a person is in the stages of [Type II diabetes], we always want them to work on weight loss and increased physical activity. That’s the foundation of the treatment,” Marullo said. ‘‘[The study] clearly shows significant weight loss is important in controlling diabetes and in the early stages [of the disease] helping patients stay off medication.”

Marullo said Bethesda has a pre-diabetes program to identify patients who may be at risk of diabetes before they actually develop it.

‘‘Studies show if we can help that group of patients lose weight and increase their physical activity, up to 58 percent of the time, we can either keep them in [their current] range or regress their blood sugars to normal levels,” Marullo said. ‘‘That’s a group that we are aggressively working with to prevent them from developing diabetes.”