Success rates with bariatric surgery

We have recently been able to extract data from our bariatric society (American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery).  Our report showed that patients from our practice entered into bariatric surgery 3 BMI points lower than…our patients were smaller on the day of surgery.  However, they lost weight at a faster pace than the comparison group (the rest of the patients done elsewhere).  At 2 years post-op, our patients were 5 BMI points lower than the comparison group.

What’s the point?  It appears that our patients likely enter into bariatric having lost more weight BEFORE surgery.  I think this makes surgery safer and the patients have hopefully been practicing the proper lifestyle modifications.  They are healthier on the day of surgery.  Very clearly, our patients are losing more weight than average…this is very much a reflection of the patient’s work…they are working hard to eat and exercise better.  We only get a small amount of credit for coaching them in this endeavor.   At 2 years post-op, our patients had an average BMI of 28.7 kg/m2.  Although a BMI above 25 is considered overweight (by this definition, I am overweight), I’m really happy about this.  The data also suggests that patients are keeping the weight off at 2 years…obviously, we need to plan for keeping it off for a lifetime.