الفهرس 
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Abstract
During the last decades, obesity has reached epidemic proportions in both the developing and the developed world. As a direct consequence, the global burden of obesity-related comorbidities has been substantially increased. Overall and visceral adiposity are implicated in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and hence, epidemiological trends for obesity are paralleled by a propensity towards a higher prevalence of T2DM. Although the slope of the linear relationship between excess body weight and T2DM is not identical across all ethnic groups, the causal link between these two conditions is such that they are often viewed as a joint burden, composing the global epidemic of “diabesity”.
The medical management of T2DM typically consists of lifestyle modifications and specific glucose-lowering medications. The latter are targeted at maintaining glucose levels within an acceptable range, while the former aim to achieve weight loss through diet, increased physical activity and behavioral therapy, in order to beneficially modulate the underlying pathophysiology of T2DM. Although most individuals benefit from these conservative approaches in the short term, a durable and clinically significant weight loss and its associated metabolic improvement is rarely, if ever, achieved. Furthermore, despite major advances in recent years, diabetes pharmacotherapy is often oriented towards managing only hyperglycemia, which could be considered to be the “tip of the iceberg” among the numerous metabolic perturbations of the disease.
The remarkable effects of bariatric surgery regarding sustained weight loss and metabolic amelioration have gradually gathered attention and highlight the potential of surgery to serve as a therapeutic modality for T2DM. By addressing