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Patient Reported Outcomes 10 years After Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass

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Abstract

Background

Following weight-loss surgery, patients who failed to achieve or sustain weight loss have nevertheless reported high satisfaction with their long-term bariatric experience. Understanding this phenomenon better will likely improve patients’ experiences.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to explore patients’ long-term experiences following bariatric surgery.

Setting

A 604-bed academic health system in the USA.

Methods

Participants rated satisfaction and shared spontaneous comments regarding their gastric bypass experience. A phenomenological mode of inquiry explored participants’ experiences. Transcribed phrases were categorized and themes identified.

Results

In a 2004 surgical cohort, with 55% (155/281) participation, 99% of participants rated bariatric experience satisfaction (mean score 8.4) and 74% (115/155) shared comments regarding experiences. Responses were categorized as positive (63% 72/115), neutral (25% 29/115), or negative (12% 14/115).

Satisfaction, Appreciation, and Gratefulness emerged as themes from positive comments, with 8% (6/72) explicitly acknowledging amount of weight loss achieved. Twenty-five percent (18/72) spontaneously mentioned undergoing surgery again or recommending the procedure to others. Neutral comments contained the themes of Reflection, Acknowledgment, and Wistfulness. Themes of Dissatisfaction, Disappointment, and Regret emerged from negative comments. Forty-three percent (6/14) of negative comments remarked on regaining weight or not reaching goal weight. Twenty-one percent (3/14) of negative comments explicitly stated regret at having undergone surgery.

Conclusions

Participants readily shared comments regarding their gastric bypass experience. Exploring themes provided insight into patients’ satisfaction with bariatric surgery even when weight-loss goals were not met and conversely substantial dissatisfaction even when weight loss occurred. This study underscores the importance of understanding the patients’ long-term experience following bariatric surgery.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mary M. Deivert NP for serving as the debriefer for this project. This work was a poster presentation at Obesity Week 2016 New Orleans, Louisiana, October 21–November 4, 2016. The National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32HL007849 supported this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, University of Virginia, Box 800709, Charlottesville, VA, 22908, USA

    Florence E. Turrentine, James H. Mehaffey, Matthew G. Mullen, Bruce D. Schirmer & Peter T. Hallowell

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Rachel L. Mehaffey

Authors
  1. Florence E. Turrentine
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  2. James H. Mehaffey
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  3. Rachel L. Mehaffey
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  4. Matthew G. Mullen
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  5. Bruce D. Schirmer
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  6. Peter T. Hallowell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Florence E. Turrentine.

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Conflict of Interest

Authors 1–6 do not have any conflict of interest. National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32HL007849 supported authors 2 and 4 in this work. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Turrentine, F.E., Mehaffey, J.H., Mehaffey, R.L. et al. Patient Reported Outcomes 10 years After Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass. OBES SURG 27, 2253–2257 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-017-2641-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-017-2641-6

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