São Paulo – Medical experts from five Middle East countries will attend the 21st World Congress of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity & Metabolic Disorders (IFSO 2016) taking place from September 28 to October 1 in Rio de Janeiro. The doctors from the Arab nations will present their works in an exclusive panel on September 30.
“They [the Middle East] have a population profile that has a great number of diabetics and hypertensive individuals”, points out Carlos Aurélio Schiavon, coordinator of the Scientific Papers Commission of the IFSO 2016 and a member of the Brazilian Society of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery. According to him, the high rate of diabetics among Arabs is related to the population’s profile. “It’s a genetic issue of the Asian population. They present a higher rate of diabetes”, he says.
Schiavon explains that bariatric surgery, commonly known as stomach reduction surgery, has beneficial effects on diabetes patients. “The results are the reduction in drugs taken and some patients that used to take insulin not taking it anymore”, he says.
The gap between diabetes rates in the Middle East countries and in Brazil is considerable. In Kuwait, for instance, the illness affects 35% of the population while in Brazil it reaches around 6% to 7% of the people.
Among the topics to be discussed in the panel with the Arab experts are the challenges faced by the multidisciplinary practice of the bariatric surgery in the Middle East and the initial post-surgery recovery. Doctors from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Egypt will take part in the presentations. On the same day, a Saudi expert will speak on another panel about bariatric surgery in teenagers.
The 21st World Congress of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity & Metabolic Disorders is an event organized for the experts in this field, such as endocrinologists, surgeons and nutritionists, among other professionals. Registrations can be made at https://goo.gl/bGuqOm.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
