When surgery alone won’t cut it: physical and psychological influences on weight loss after bariatric surgery

For people with morbid obesity, bariatric surgery (surgery aimed at reducing weight) is the best treatment. However, in 20-30% of bariatric patients there is insufficient weight loss or even weight gain after surgery. It is not well known whether patient-related (physical and psychological) factors influence this. This dissertation shows that preoperative patient-related factors are not predictive of the degree of weight loss after bariatric surgery. It has also been shown that postoperative physical activities and psychological factors are related to weight loss. Moreover, skin surplus appears to be a major problem in the post-bariatric patients. Patient-related (physical and psychological) factors are therefore very important in patients after bariatric surgery and more attention should be paid to this. These factors will also have to be partly taken into account in the assessment for reimbursement of plastic surgery for skin surplus.