New Scoring System for Evaluating Improved Health After Weight Loss Surgery

Editor — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:26:42 +0000

The authors of a study published in the January, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons are proposing a new numerical scoring system to describe the health problems obesity surgery patients (bariatric patients) have before their surgery and to assess improvement or elimination of these problems after

their surgery.

A team of researchers from the Department of Surgery at University of California, Davis in Sacramento assigned a score from 0-5 (with 0 being not present) for each of 17 problems common to patients who are more than 100 lbs. overweight.

The surgeons then operated on 90 patients using the Roux-en-Y technique of gastric bypass and compiled their scores at intervals up to a year after their surgery. Although the study is ongoing (37 patients have reached the 6 month mark) patients improved in a statistically significant way their health problems in nearly all categories, except for diabetes and hyperlipidemia.

This study is one of the first to quantitatively rather than qualitatively measure the improvement in health of patients receiving this type of weight loss surgery. The authors argue that this study adds to accumulating experience that bariatric or weight loss surgery is the best current treatment for morbid obesity.

Surgical Technique May Reduce Need for Re-excision of Breast Cancer Site

Editor — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 02:34:09 +0000

A study published in the December, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons suggests there may be a way for surgeons to cut the need for a patient to have a second operation at the site of their breast cancer excision or lumpectomy. A team of researchers from the University of Florida, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the University of Georgia reviewed

the charts of 257 patients who had early stage breast cancer (DCIS, T1, or T2). All had undergone breast conservation therapy, which consisted of surgically removing the lump and surrounding tissue and administering radiation to the entire breast, tumor site, and possibly the lymph nodes. Those patients who had a shaved margin of tissue surrounding the tumor sent to the lab for inspection intra-operatively (frozen section analysis), as opposed to several hours later, had a 83% reduction in the need for a second operation to insure that all cancer cells had been removed. These real-time results allowed the surgeon to remove more tissue if needed, instead of having to perform a later, second surgery. However, the authors were careful to point out that using this frozen section technique did not affect the long-term outcome for these patients.

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New Scoring System for Evaluating Improved Health After Weight Loss Surgery

Surgical Technique May Reduce Need for Re-excision of Breast Cancer Site