Improving obesity treatment: metabolic and bariatric surgery + body contour surgery.

Background: Currently, the most effective treatment for obesity is metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS), but when body contouring surgery (BCS) is added to the treatment, the results in terms of weight loss improve.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to demonstrate that BCS achieves a higher percentage of weight loss and that this weight loss is maintained over time. In addition, the suboptimal response to MBS is lower in patients undergoing BCS.

Setting: University Hospital, Spain, Public Practice METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed in a population of patients who underwent MBS in our hospital. The patients were divided into two groups, one with MBS only and the other with MBS + BCS, comparing weights before MBS and at the current time. With a mean follow-up of 69 months.

Results: Statistically significant results are obtained in relation to the change in body mass index (BMI) and the current BMI in favor of the MBS + BCS group (P = 0,003 and < 0,001, respectively). That is, BCS improves the outcome of MBS alone. In addition, BCS reduces the rate of suboptimal response to treatment compared to MBS alone (P = 0,001), also with statistically significant results.

Conclusions: Patients undergoing MBS who also undergo BCS have a lower BMI and a lower rate of suboptimal treatment response compared to patients who do not undergo BCS. However, patients who undergo BCS do not lose more weight after this technique, they lose weight sooner, and they maintain weight loss after BCS. Therefore, BCS does not appear to promote weight loss, but rather weight maintenance.