Between 60,000 and 100,000 people in Croatia are potential patients for surgical removal of fat, and after the surgery type 2 diabetes goes into remission in nearly 70 percent of cases, a round table was told in Zagreb on Tuesday. Pročitaj više

“Surgical treatment of obesity related to type 2 diabetes is covered by mandatory health insurance. I am confident that by working together we can achieve all the preconditions to stop the growing trend in obesity,” Health Minister Vili Beros said.

Beros said that the Health Ministry has recognised the problem of growing obesity and begun the national programme “Living a Healthy Life” in cooperation with the Croatian Public Health Institute.

Bariatric surgery is performed with a doctor’s referral at the clinical hospital centres in Osijek, Rijeka, Varazdin and Zagreb. Candidates for this procedure are patients with a body mass index of 40, or 35 if they suffer from accompanying conditions.

In 2019, 26 such procedures were performed in Croatia, compared to 304 in neighbouring Slovenia, it was noted.

Dr Zdenko Boras from the KBC Osijek hospital was the first to perform this procedure on a teenager, a 15-year-old secondary school student. He said that bariatric surgery is very safe, because complications occur in fewer than one percent of cases, and patients can stand up with the help of a physiotherapist already four hours after the surgery.