Outcomes
Conservative treatment
International criteria define a successful outcome achieved by solely conservative treatment measures as a weight loss of 5% of initial body weight.
Some patients are able to lose substantially more weight and can maintain it for years. Weight regain is a particular challenge in every weight management programme which can be encountered only by long-term professional support.
It should be emphasized that even a rather small weight loss (e.g. 5 kg) carries significant health benefits in particular in regard of metabolic measures such as blood sugar. Therefore, small achievements should not be disregarded.
Surgical Procedures
The results of bariatric surgery largely surpass the results that can be achieved by conservative procedures. Therefore, the success after surgical procedure is much higher than after conservative treatment. Success is defined as a durable excessive weight loss of at least 50% after surgery. Surgical intervention is internationally defined. The selection of a patient is a particular challenge as the greatest success should be achieved by the least invasive surgical intervention. The importance of the follow-up programme and the collaboration with the interdisciplinary treatment team is the same as for conservative treatment.
Over all, the quality of life markedly increases for the majority of operated patients with a strong correlation between improvement and the lost amount of body weight.