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Where Are My Patients? Lost and Found in Bariatric Surgery

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Abstract

Purpose

Follow-up is a cornerstone of the success of bariatric surgery. However, adherence to monitoring decreases over time. The reasons for non-compliance with follow-up still remain unclear.

Materials and Methods

This is a retrospective, single-center, cohort study, including all patients undergoing bariatric surgery between 2014 and 2017. Patients lost to follow-up were called back and questioned about the reasons of non-adherence. Patients followed and lost to follow-up were compared in terms of weight loss.

Results

Overall, 29.7% of patients were lost to follow-up. After a callback, we obtained information on 89.9% of patients. The first reason of non-attendance was considering follow-up as unnecessary (29.5%). Almost a quarter of patients (24%) discontinued follow-up due to geographic distance, while 23.3%, 18.6%, and 14.0% of patients explained the lack of follow-up due to family, professional, or health problems. Only 7.0% declared to renounce to follow-up because of poor weight loss. Percentage of excess weight loss at 3 and 5 years after surgery was respectively 73.6% and 81.2% in attendant patients, and 70.7% and 68.4% in non-adherent patients (p = ns). Despite a greater weight loss in the group of patients regularly followed, the difference with patients lost to follow-up remained not significant in multivariate analysis.

Conclusions

Follow-up is of crucial importance in the management of bariatric patients. Follow-up disruption is associated to individual patient choice and external constraints. In order to improve the quality of long-term care, care providers will probably need to adapt to these constraints, diversifying the offer of care.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal de Créteil, 40 avenue de Verdun, 94000, Créteil, France

    Paolino Luca, Couteau Nicolas, Vignot Marina, Batahei Sarah & Lazzati Andrea

  2. INSERM IMRB U955, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Créteil, France

    Lazzati Andrea

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  1. Paolino Luca
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  2. Couteau Nicolas
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  3. Vignot Marina
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  4. Batahei Sarah
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Correspondence to Paolino Luca.

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Ethical Approval Statement

For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

Informed Consent Statement

Patients contacted by telephone and submitted to questionnaire were informed of the study protocol and their consent was acquired.

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Luca, P., Nicolas, C., Marina, V. et al. Where Are My Patients? Lost and Found in Bariatric Surgery. OBES SURG 31, 1979–1985 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-020-05186-9

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