What is the actual REAL purpose of this 5 day liquid diet?

[star0210]

My surgeon is Dr. Ungson. I was told by his coordinator that the purpose is to make the intestines clean inside, more flexible, and manageable.

 

[Charris]

Dr. Told me if we could diet we wouldn't need surgery. He said doctors should be made to do the diets they make the patients do.

 

[southernlady]

Honestly, except for making sure your system is cleaned out just before surgery, I think the surgeons who DO insists on liquid diets are just trying to weed out the ones who aren't really ready. I like the thought that surgeons should try the diets (and vitamins) they insist their patients need to do.

Liquids AFTER surgery is critical.

 

[robs477]

It depends on the site involved. Links to other FORUMS are discouraged as we are all in the same boat and don't want to give our competition any exposure But others are fine.

Not to be rude...or condescending, but what competition?

 

[robs477]

You are SO close, you can do this, all down hill from here!

 

[southernlady]

Not to be rude...or condescending, but what competition?

LOL, I like how you think...
But the truth is, other forums have been around longer (doesn't mean they are better) and links back to a competitor helps them in the google rankings. PLUS the others won't let anyone link to us so why let anyone link to them.

 

[star0210]

This site is way more active than either OH or the PB site....with PB site being even less active than OH!
Back when I had my sleeve in 2010, OH was very very active.
How times change!

 

[robs477]

This site is way more active than either OH or the PB site....with PB site being even less active than OH!
Back when I had my sleeve in 2010, OH was very very active.
How times change!

Exactly, PB hardly has any posts anymore. I still go there once and a while, and on OH too because there are a few really nice people that are on there, and occasionally, I will get some info or different perspective, but this place is an exact fit for me. To each their won, I just go by my gut feeling on a lot of things and this is one of them.

 

[Dawn]

To make you suffer and build more self doubt cause it's so freakin hard to stick too. (imho)

 

[Barb1]

I have had three WLS by three different surgeons and none of them asked for any type diet, just NPO after midnight! It sounds like torture to me.

 

[DianaCox]

EVEN assuming the miserable pre-op diet shrinks the liver, I do not know of any studies that show that this makes a damned bit of difference in the outcomes of the surgeries. And even if THAT shows a difference, I'd bet that the ONLY cases where it makes a difference is where the surgeon is inexperienced or otherwise subpar. As Rabkin said, bariatric surgeons should expect to find and to be able to deal with large livers - that's part of their job. Shrinking the liver has NOT been shown to affect outcome - at best, it is for the surgeon's convenience, and that is NOT a good enough reason to torture the patient.

 

[Kiekerdepiekske]

Thanks Diana, I needed to head that because I was feeling bad about sneaking in a few handfuls of nuts during the 6-day pre-op diet that Dr. Himpens asked me to do. To his credit, his explanation about why he wants this was that it is much easier to move the liver out of the way.

 

[star0210]

and my surgeon's answer had nothing to do with the liver! It was that the intestines would be cleaner, more flexible and manageable.

Go figure.

 

[DianaCox]

I think the REAL answer is that some bariatric surgeons are secret fatty haters, who think we should be tortured as punishment for getting fat before they bestow upon us the gift of bariatric surgery.

 

[more2adore]

Here we go - I found the post I was thinking of. It was Diana talking about the ASMBS' stance on preoperative diets:

There is NO CONVINCING MEDICAL EVIDENCE that dieting "to shrink the liver" does SHIT to improve the outcome of bariatric surgery, but there is a TON of evidence that it discourages people from ever getting it.

http://asmbs.org/resources/preoperative-supervised-weight-loss-requirements
Summary and Recommendations

1. There are no Class I studies or evidence-based reports that document the benefits of, or the need for, a 6 to 12 month pre-operative dietary weight loss program before bariatric surgery. The current evidence supporting preoperative weight loss involves physician-mandated weight loss to improve surgical risk or to evaluate patient adherence. Although many believe there may be benefits to acute preoperative weight loss in the weeks before bariatric surgery, the available Class II-IV data regarding acute weight loss prior to bariatric surgery are indeterminate and provide conflicting results leading to no clear consensus at this time. Preoperative weight loss that is recommended by the surgeon and/or the multi-disciplinary bariatric treatment team due to an individual patient’s needs may have value for the purposes of improving surgical risk or evaluating patient adherence , but is supported only by low-level evidence in the literature at the present time.
2. One effect of mandated preoperative weight management prior to bariatric surgery is attrition of patients from bariatric surgery programs. This barrier to care is likely related to patient inconvenience, frustration, healthcare costs and lost income due to the requirement for repeated physician visits that are not covered by health insurance.

It is the position of the ASMBS that the requirement for documentation of prolonged preoperative diet efforts before health insurance carrier approval of bariatric surgery services is inappropriate, capricious, and counter-productive given the complete absence of a reasonable level of medical evidence to support this practice. Policies such as these that delay, impede or otherwise interfere with life-saving and cost-effective treatment, as have been proven to be true for bariatric surgery to treat morbid obesity, are unacceptable without supporting evidence. Individual surgeons and programs should be free to recommend preoperative weight loss based on the specific needs and circumstances of the patient.

That last part, in red, is an inconsistent throw-in to placate the fatty-hating surgeons who insist on putting their patients through pointless, unsupported, torturous, needless deprivation and stress.

southernlady: another glitch - the italics aren't showing up. In the draft form, all the red parts are in italics, but they are not showing up in the post.