PIMS to establish weight-loss surgery centre

ISLAMABAD: In a welcome move for the patients of diabetes and obesity, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) has announced to establish a dedicated department for Metabolic and Bariatric surgery, a procedure which has shown to be effective in curing and controlling the two diseases better than the currently available medical treatment.

Experts believe obesity and related diseases mainly Diabetes type 2 are alarmingly on the rise in Pakistan and will be a pandemic within a decade if measures are not taken as per new research.

According to Executive Director Pims, Dr Raja Amjad Mehmood the new department will be established by upgrading the existing facilities through procurement of advanced equipment. The equipment will require a budgetary allocation of up to Rs40 million. He said the PC-1 to establish a state of art dedicated center for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery will be submitted to soon for approval.

It is believed that department could save billions of rupees which government has to spend in treating complications of Diabetes and Cardiovadcular diseases due to obesity.

The complications of Diabetes include treatment for heart disease, Stroke, blindness, renal failure and gangrene of limbs needing amputation .These treatments require one trillion USD in USA annually.

Already at PIMS, an Associate Professor in Department of General Surgery Dr Aatif Inam Shami working and his team have performed Metabolic Surgery in Obese and Diabetic patients with success since 2015. However his efforts are constrained due to non-availability of advance equipment needed for this type of surgeries which incurs extra cost on patients.

He has organised several workshops in past three years at Pims where surgeons from abroad demonstrated these advanced operations. He was also instrumental in setting up of PSMBS Pakistan Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery to create public awareness about obesity and Diabetes and train Pakistani surgeons in this field.

To further propagate the cause of Metabolic Surgery Dr Aatif Inam Shami organised two-day MGB Review Corp Surgeon of Excellence Bronze Certification Courses where surgeons from all over the Pakistan got an opportunity to interact and get trained by an American surgeon Dr Robert Rutledge, the inventor of Laparoscopic Mini Gastric Bypass (MGB). The first of the two courses was held on 9th and 10th March 2018 and second is scheduled on 16-17 March 2018.

At the end of First course president PSMBS Prof Mumtaz Maher emphasised in his speech about the role of public hospitals to propagate this specialty so the pandemic of diabetes can be treated effectively and suggested PIMS should take lead in training of Metabolic Surgery.