Maggie McKay (Host): If you're considering bariatric weight loss surgery, there's a lot to know beforehand, like misconceptions, lifestyle changes, advances in the field, and more.

So today, Dr. Mohammed Elshamy, a Board Certified, Fellowship Trained Surgeon at Carle specializing in bariatric foregut and advanced gastrointestinal surgery will fill us in. Welcome to Let's Talk with Carle Health, a podcast featuring Carle doctors, partners and other experts, bringing you topics important to your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Maggie McKay. Thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Elshamy.

Mohammed Elshamy, MBBCh: Thank you, it's a pleasure.

Host: Let's just start with what are the social impacts and health problems related to obesity?

Mohammed Elshamy, MBBCh: There are so many health related issues to obesity. So, obesity is linked to metabolic syndrome, to diabetes, to high blood pressure, to fatty liver disease, to high blood cholesterol levels, as well as multiple other issues, such as infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome, uh, intracranial hypertension, and it's also linked to some certain cancers, that increase in risk, with obesity, like, breast cancer, cervical cancer in women, prostate cancer in men. So, there's so many health issues that are related to obesity, and obesity is more prevalent in disadvantaged communities. This leads to widespread inequalities in healthcare and so many social impacts, such as discrimination. Childhood obesity has impacts on anxiety, depression, bullying, and various other social stigmas. So I think that it's important to talk about obesity and how it links to all of the above problems in medicine and in society.

Maggie McKay (Host): Absolutely. That covers a lot. And especially for kids. You know, they can be so cruel. What factors make a patient a good fit for bariatric surgery and when should a patient be referred to the Carle Bariatric Surgery Team?

Mohammed Elshamy, MBBCh: Going over some of the indications for bariatric surgery. So that means, where we would consider bariatric surgery for a patient. So, usually that is based off of a patient's BMI, Body Mass Index. Indications for bariatric surgery are a BMI, greater than 35 which is classified as morbid obesity with an obesity related comorbidity, like diabetes or high blood pressure or a BMI greater than 40 without any of those health issues.

I think that any patient that meets those criteria, who has been struggling with their weight for a while or has considered weight loss and has been unsuccessful with other means; that would be a good time to have a referral placed to our bariatric surgery team to start talking about bariatric surgery and going over the process and the lifestyle changes associated with that.

Host: Dr. Elshamy, would you please describe the pre op process and the mindset, lifestyle changes that a patient needs to make to maintain long term weight loss success?

Mohammed Elshamy, MBBCh: So, we have an extensive preoperative process where we go ove all of the patient's medical and surgical history, as well as where they've had issues with failure in achieving sustained weight loss in the past.

We assess their nutritional status, their current vitamin levels, and we make sure that they go through a process of understanding the dietary and lifestyle modifications that need to go hand in hand with the bariatric surgery for sustained lifestyle changes, sustained dietary changes after surgery to ensure success of the operation.

Weight loss surgery is a tool that the patients utilize to achieve long term success. And, one of the strengths of our program is that, even before surgery, we have an extensive process, where the patients learn all of the tools and changes that are needed to achieve that success.

And I think that is really instrumental in, in achieving that long term weight loss success for them.

Host: Can you tell us about the weight loss procedures that the Carle Bariatric Surgery Team performs? What's the typical recovery time? 

Mohammed Elshamy, MBBCh: The two main surgeries that we do are a sleeve gastrectomy and a Roux en Y gastric bypass. The recovery after surgery involves one day hospital stay, where essentially we just check up on the patient and make sure that they're doing well, that their pain is well tolerated and they're able to start drinking without any main issues. And they go home the following day. Most people are back to work in about 10 days to 2 weeks after surgery.

When they go home, they're able to do all of their day to day activities. They're able to walk around, they're able to take steps and they're pretty independent. Recovery time after bariatric surgery is quite similar to gallbladder surgery or hysterectomy, and it's very well tolerated.

Host: Dr. Elshamy, why should a patient choose to complete their bariatric surgery at Carle?

Mohammed Elshamy, MBBCh: So our bariatric surgery center is a center of excellence for bariatric surgery and what that means is that we have a full center with dedicated fellowship trained bariatric surgeons as well as a comprehensive program involving preoperative assessment and care. We have dedicated follow up where we see the patients every three months for the first year and make sure that they're achieving their weight loss goals and they're not having any problems, followed by yearly visits as well.

We also have dedicated hospital staff, nursing teams and a dedicated bariatric floor where the patients stay on postoperatively, which means that they're getting the best inpatient care after the surgery by specialized nurses who really understand how to take care of a bariatric patient.

And we track all of our outcomes and do yearly reviews in order to ensure quality care for our patients.

Host: Well, it sounds like Carle has all the bases covered and, it's a wonderful place to be taken care of during bariatric surgery. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us.

Mohammed Elshamy, MBBCh: Thank you for having me. It's been my pleasure.

Host: Again, that's Dr. Mohamed Elshamy. And to find out more, please visit carle.org. That's C-A-R-L-E.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Maggie McKay. Thanks for listening. Count on Carle to be your partner in health and wellness.

And join us next time on Let's Talk with Carle Health.