May 9, 2007

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

The attached document includes several slides from my presentation at the Rome Diabetes Summit three weeks ago. It was a very successful session in which even the endocrinologists were deeply impressed by evidence that:

• the gut plays a major role in the etiology of Type 2 diabetes (T2D), and
• full remission of diabetes has been achieved in non-obese patients by stomach sparing duodenojejunal bypasses (DJB) in three small series (Mexico, Brazil and India).

The first five slides demonstrate the increase in diabetes in the United States and the increasing mortality from diabetes. The next six slides illustrate the brilliant studies by Rubino in genetically diabetic rats (Ann Surg. 244(5):741-9, Nov. 2006). The last two slides present the human data from studies in Brazil and India.

It is important to note that DJB surgery is still in the early experimental phase and should be done only with:

1. clearly defined protocols,
2. IRB approval, and
3. registration of the study with SRC.

I predict that the DJB will prove to be an important option in the care of T2D. Thought you'd enjoy sharing these with your endocrinologist colleagues.

Sincerely,

Walter J. Pories, M.D., FACS
Chairman of the Board