THE EFFECT OF FOLLOW-UP ON REPORTING SUCCESS FOR OBESITY SURGERY

Background: Much is written about the importance of follow-up in deter mining the effect of surgical treatment for obesity upon weight loss. When patients are lost to follow-up, it has been suggested that these patients should be considered as failures. This study was undertaken t o determine the effect of incorporating patients not followed in a def inition of success for weight loss at one year. Methods: Data from 34 surgical practices were used to study the effect of using two differen t denominators, patients followed (D-F) or patients eligible (D-E), to define success. The numerator used in both methods was the number of patients with less than or equal to 50% EW at 1 year. Results: One-yea r follow-up was 61% (5091/8356). Success was 67% (3423/5091) when calc ulated using the denominator patients followed (D-F). No correlation w as found between success and follow-up when data within each surgical practice were averaged and used in a correlation analysis. Conclusions : This study does not support the thesis that patients who fail to ret urn for follow-up should be considered as having failed in weight cont rol.