A Prospective Study Of The Benefits Of Post-bariatric Body Contouring On Quality Of Life
Omar Elfanagely, MD, Arturo J. Rios-Diaz, MD, Jessica R. Cunning, MBA, Cutler Whitely, BA, Charles A. Messa, IV, BS, Martin Morris, MD, Robyn B. Broach, PhD, John P. Fischer, MD, MPH.
Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
PURPOSE: Obesity is a global healthcare issue. Bariatric surgery offers a solution, however at the risk of redundant skin. These patients are increasingly seeking reconstructive surgery, yet a considerable percentage of them never receive these body contouring procedures (BCP). We aim to quantify the impact of truncal BCP on quality of life (QoL) by comparing patients who received surgery to those who did not.
METHODS: Patients seeking truncal BCP after bariatric surgery weight loss (BSWL) were prospectively surveyed using the Body-Q (Klassen A. et al) instrument. Initially at their consultation visit, and subsequently at either their postoperative visit (operative group) or at a later time (nonoperative group). Propensity score matching was used in order to balance baseline characteristics.
RESULTS: 47 matched patients were identified (N=27, operative; N=20, non-operative). There was no significant difference in age, BMI, or preoperative Body-Q scores between the cohorts. QoL significantly improved in each domain for those who underwent BCP. Those who did not undergo BCP realized no improvements in QoL and had a significant drop across four of the ten QoL domains (Table 1).
CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that those patients who are able to undergo truncal BCP after BSWL obtained a dramatic improvement in all aspects of QoL. However, those who are unable to proceed with surgery are left with a notable deterioration in specific QoL domains.
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