Vanderbilt Center for Surgical Weight Loss develops online education seminar for patients

The Vanderbilt Center for Surgical Weight Loss is developing an online education seminar for prospective patients to take in the privacy of their own homes.

Just as it was difficult a few years back for doctors to talk to their patients about the dangers of smoking, discussing a patient's weight can be equally difficult, according to Ronald Clements, M.D., director of the Vanderbilt Center for Surgical Weight Loss and professor of Surgery.

The interactive seminar opens the door to that conversation, while providing a means for the surgeons to assess each patient's general understanding of obesity and its treatments even before their first appointment.

"Our goal is to take away some of the mystery surrounding bariatric surgery and dramatically improve the lives of so many battling the harmful effects of this disease," Clements said.

Patients seeking surgical weight loss are at least 100 pounds overweight, or twice their ideal body weight, and diet and exercise hasn't worked.

That was the case for 46-year-old Manuel Gomez of Madison, Tenn. After trying countless diets, he found himself at a size 48 with high blood pressure and diabetes. His doctors gave him two years to live if he didn't lose the weight.

After bariatric surgery, he lost 125 pounds, dropped to a size 29 and can now run and play with his son. He even helps coach his son's soccer team.

Unfortunately, many people are still unaware of or simply afraid of this course of treatment, Clements said, although numerous studies prove the safety and long-term effectiveness of bariatric surgery as the solution to morbid obesity.

"We don't face competition from other surgeons in the area, we face competition from ignorance and fear," Clements said.

Clements said modern bariatric surgery has changed considerably over the past decade. Physicians and surgeons now have a better understanding of the physiology of obesity, which has led to a better approach to treatment that includes the total well-being of the patient.

Advances in laparoscopic surgery have considerably improved surgical outcomes, with fewer complications and shorter recoveries. Surgery has also been shown to reduce some of the serious health effects of obesity.

"Treatment with bariatric surgery no longer ends with the trip to the OR," he said. "We now provide complete post-operative care, from outpatient follow-up to help with nutrition to psychological counseling."

A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that within seven years of gastric bypass surgery, patients experienced sharp declines in the rates of death associated with cardiac disease, diabetes and cancer, by 50 percent, 90 percent and 60 percent, respectively.

SOURCE Vanderbilt Center for Surgical Weight Loss