research news

The latest clinical study shows bariatric surgery patients can benefit from pre-surgical weight loss.

Reducing liver size and abdominal adiposity before obesity surgery can lead to a diminished degree of surgical difficulty, decreased risk of liver trauma, and blood loss. Colles and colleagues offered pre-operative patients the OPTIFAST full meal replacement diet for up to 12 weeks to reduce surgical risks through weight loss.

Significant findings from the study included mean decreases in:

• Body weight – 32 lbs. (10.6%)
• Liver volume – 18.7%
• Visceral adipose tissue – 16.9%

A six week OPTIFAST diet helped achieve significant liver reduction in addition to steady reductions in adipose tissue and body weight.

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