Question
Patient: A 12-year-old female, in good health two years ago. Currently, she needs to inject insulin 3 to 4 times a day. Question: Can a patient with type 1 diabetes undergo surgery?
Answer
According to your description, type 1 diabetes is generally caused by the complete destruction of islet cells, resulting in the complete loss of insulin production. Therefore, it can only be treated with exogenous insulin. There are no reported cases of surgical cure in China, although there have been reports of islet cell transplantation for treating type 1 diabetes abroad. However, these treatments are effective for early-stage type 1 diabetes and last only a few years without insulin use, and they cannot cure the disease permanently.