MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Weight-loss surgery as a means of controlling or even curing Type II diabetes topped the list for Cleveland Clinic’s medical innovations to watch in 2013.
Bariatric surgeries alter the shape of the stomach or digestive tract in order to induce weight-loss.
"Over the years, many doctors performing weight-loss operations found that the surgical procedure would rid patients of Type 2 diabetes, oftentimes before the patient left the hospital," according to a Cleveland Clinic statement. "Many diabetes experts now believe that weight-loss surgery should be offered much earlier as a reasonable treatment option for patients with poorly controlled diabetes —and not as a last resort."
Other device-based treatments that made the list included headache-treating neuromodulation and hand-held melanoma detection, as well as new developments in cataract surgery and digital breast tomosynthesis.
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