The team led by Mário Nora, director of the Central Surgery Department of the Centro Hospitalar de Entre o Douro e Vouga (CHEDV) won the 3rd edition of the Banco Carregosa Prize/Northen Regional Section of the Portuguese Medical Association in clinical research, with a work that opens the door to a paradigm shift in the treatment of obese diabetic patients, with inherent gains in health. The prize, worth 20,000 euros, which will be reinvested in continuation of the research, was awarded to the surgeon and the endocrinologist Mariana Monteiro, in a ceremony held on May 23 (see photo above). The award –winning research consisted of the study of the antidiabetic effects of an innovative bariatric surgical technique – the metabolic bypass – conceived and implemented at Hospital de São Sebastião, in Santa Maria da Feira (which is integrated in CHEDV). As a result from close collaboration between the CHEDV and a molecular research group from the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS) of the University of Porto, led by endocrinologist Mariana Monteiro, this research showed that the surgery in question modifies the anatomy of the cells producing antidiabetic hormones in the intestine, enhances their release to the blood stream and increases the probability of clinical remission of diabetes. «Bariatric surgery can prevent diabetes and its complications, or even induce prolonged remission of the disease in a magnitude higher than expected for weight loss», explains Mário Nora. «It is now known that gastrointestinal hormones play a key role in the antidiabetic effect of the surgery. Until now, however, the impact of the different surgical techniques on the hormonal profile and on the control of the diabetes has not been sufficiently well known to allow a personalized choice of the technique most appropriate for each patient», he adds. Mário Nora has been a surgeon at Hospital da Luz Arrábida since the opening of the unit and Mariana Monteiro has beeb an endocrinologist here since 2010. The Obesity Surgical Treatment Centre of Hospital da Luz Arrábida is one of the units in the country recognized in this field by the General Directorate for Health. In 2018, were performed 123 bariatric surgeries.
