title: The Effect of Follow-up on Reporting Success for Obesity Surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND: Much is written about the importance of follow-up in determining 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 to determine the effect of incorporating patients not followed in a definition of success for weight loss at one year. METHODS: Data from 34 surgical practices were used to study the effect of using two different denominators, patients followed (Df) or patients eligible (De), to define success. The numerator used in both methods was the number of patients with </= 50% EW at 1 year. RESULTS: One-year follow-up was 61% (5091/8356). Success was 67% (3423/5091) when calculated using the denominator patients followed (Df). No correlation was 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 fall to return for follow-up should be considered as having failed in weight control.
authors.affiliation: National Bariatric Surgery Registry, The University of Iowa College of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Iowa City, IA, 52242-1086, USA.
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Renquist
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Cullen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Doherty
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Mason