Patients Who are Delayed from Undergoing Bariatric Surgery Do Not have Improved Weight Loss

Abstract

Many patients have a prolonged wait time between initial surgeon visit and actual surgery day. Whereas there are various reasons for this, few have examined if patient wait time for bariatric surgery has any affect on weight loss. This investigation studies the hypothesis that patients who wait longer for bariatric surgery do not have improved weight loss over those with shorter wait times. All patients in a private academic practice who underwent laparoscopic gastric bypass over a 6-month period were included in this study. The time from initial office visit to actual surgery date was calculated to be wait time (WT). Reasons for short or long WT were not investigated. The relationship between WT and percentage excess body weight loss (%EBWL) was examined. In addition, patients whose WT was greater than 6 months (WT > 6) were compared to those less than 6 months (WT < 6). Pearson's correlation coefficients and two-tailed Mann-Whitney tests were used as appropriate. There were 104 patients with 99 patients who had a >1 year follow-up. WT did not correlate with %EBWL (r = 0.09, p = 0.37). There was no difference in %EBWL in the WT > 6 group versus the WT < 6 group (73 vs. 70%; p = NS). Patients who had <50% EBWL waited an average of 281 versus 254 days for those who have >50% EBWL (p = NS). Patients who wait longer before having bariatric surgery do not show improved weight loss. Weight loss success was not related to wait time. These results suggest that prolonged mandatory weight times are not an effective method for improving bariatric surgery weight loss outcomes. Mandatory delays for bariatric surgery should not be required, as they have no scientific merit.