What Tests Are Done Before Bariatric Surgery?

Bariatric surgery is a challenging process, both psychologically and physically. The readiness of patients will help eliminate the complications and side effects that might occur in the future and increase the success rate of the surgery. The more information our surgeon has about your general physical and mental status, the better they can control your post-operative situation. Let’s take a look at all the examinations you should take before weight loss surgery.

Examinations Before Obesity Surgery

Before the obesity surgery, patients should take different tests so that their surgeons can take into consideration the patients’ current health status using the test results. These tests include:

Blood test to reveal the patient’s vitamin status, hemoglobin level and other factors.
Urine: a urine test is used to diagnose diabetes, biliary or kidney problems.
Endoscopy: Stomach scanning is performed with an endoscopic instrument delivered through the mouth or nose.
Swallowing Test: This test is performed by drinking a special liquid to understand the severity of acid reflux and problems in the food path.
Pulmonary Function Test: It is a test that gives information about the lungs, measured by taking a deep breath and exhaling.
Check Up: a whole body scan helps diagnoses of the patient’s phsyical diseases.
Alcohol test: Patient’s alcohol use is directly related to weight gain. For this reason, the amount of alcohol in their blood should be measured.
Upper Abdominal Ultrasound: the ultrasound examination of the upper abdomen (liver, gall bladder, pancreas, kidney, spleen, etc. located in the upper part of the abdomen) is performed for patients with smoking habits.
Colonoscopy: the process of examining the large intestine with a special camera.
Mammography: for the diagnosis of breast cancer and its associated problems.
Interview with the dietitian: The patient gets information about nutrition by meeting with a dietitian before the surgery.
Psychiatric Evaluation: in addition to being physically healthy, people should also be psychologically ready for this situation and be healthy enough for surgery.
ECG: heart values, respiration and similar information are obtained by walking the person on a tape.
Ultrasound: ultrasound is especially performed for patients who experience pain in the upper right part of their abdomen.
Thyroid Test: the health status of the thyroid is checked by taking a blood sample.

Why Does Your Diet Before Surgery Matter?

People who want to lose weight with bariatric surgery should start a special diet at least 2 weeks before the surgery date, but what is the point of this diet?

The lower your weight is before your surgery, the less complications you’ll encounter in your post-operative life. Both you and your doctor will experience more comfortable results after the surgery.
After the surgery, a tough diet awaits you. So, quiting your unhealthy habits after the surgery might bring about depression or serious physical risks. The nutrition program you will do before the surgery will allow you to easily adapt to the diet and new eating habits after the surgery.
Extremely obese patients are much more likely to encounter complications during or after bariatric surgery. Eating carefully before the surgery will reduce the risk of complications as it enables you to lose weight.
It is important to reduce the size of your liver fat and abdomen before surgery. Eating carefully and avoiding fatty foods will help you with this.

Your diet before the surgery does not need to be extremely limiting. You should only practice getting rid of your bad habits and eliminate unhealthy nutrition from your life.

What to Eat and What Not to Eat Before Obesity Surgery

You can simply follow these guidelines;

Avoid saturated fats, and if possible, do not consume them at all. Do not consume full-fat dairy products, fatty meat, fried foods and other foods containing saturated fat.
Stay away from carbohydrates. You should not consume sweets, pasta, potatoes, bread or other pastries made with flour which are high in carbohydrates.
Sugar should be off your tables. You need to remove sugary drinks, sweets, chocolate or any products containing sugar from your meals or shopping list as much as possible.
You should keep your meals portions and the amount of exercise you do at a controlled level. Remember that you need to expend more energy to burn the food you consume.
Try to quit your unhealthy eating habits such as overeating, binge eating. Determine a portion for yourself and end your meal with this portion whether you are full or not. If you wish, you can consume yogurt, a certain amount of fruit or similar foods as a snack.
If you smoke, you should quit before the surgery. Smoking not only creates complications by making it difficult for your postoperative wounds to heal, but also directly affects your stomach, causing you to gain weight.
After you apply for bariatric surgery, your dietitian will create a list for you. Be careful to follow this list to the word.
Alcohol both causes weight gain with the calories it contains and makes digestion difficult by affecting your stomach. Therefore, you need to eliminate alcohol from your life.
Do not drink any beverages with your meals.

What to Eat Before Obesity Surgery?

You should consume only low-calorie but high-protein foods. As your surgery date approaches, you should start feeding yourself with more liquids.

Drinking protein powder and shakes will help you with this. Some examples of solid food your can consume are apple, banana, peach, apricot, pear, pineapple, melon, spinach, carrot, summer squash, green beans, yogurt, cottage cheese, lean beef, chicken, turkey, white fish and eggs.

Then, when you switch to a liquid diet, you can have decaffeinated coffee and tea, skimmed milk, thinly prepared soup and broth, unsweetened fruit juices (water with no extra sugar added, only the sugar of the fruit) and plenty of water.

Between the two orders, you should consume pureed food by making your food liquids with the help of a blender.

What Shouldn’t I Eat Before Obesity Surgery?

Foods that you must avoid before bariatric surgery ;

High-sugar foods: Soda, sweets, chocolates, or all foods that contain high levels of sugar
Alcohol: You must avoid drinking alcohol before the surgery.
Fatty foods: Fatty meat, fried food, whole milk or meals cooked with plenty of oil should not be eaten.
Fastfood: You should avoid all fastfood foods that contain saturated fat and unhealthy foods.

A Few Dietary Examples

For an example of a simple and functional diet;

Day 1: 2 boiled eggs for breakfast, protein powder for a breakfast-lunch snack, boiled chicken for lunch (cut into very small pieces), yogurt for a snack between meals, baked chicken or lean meat for dinner, boiled vegetables.
Day 1: Protein powder for breakfast, grilled chicken for lunch, a plain salad (lettuce, cucumber, onion, tomato), a small amount of salad dressing, high protein powder mix for snack, gravy soup for dinner, yogurt for evening snack.
Day 1: Avocado for breakfast, 1 boiled egg, boiled vegetables, snack protein powder, lunch turkey meat and 1 slice of cheese, dinner 1 apple and some peanut butter, natural made ice cream for snack.

The diet you can apply for a completely liquid diet;

Breakfast; low-fat milk, snack protein powder;

Lunch; pudding and multivitamin, snack calcium powder;

Dinner; soup and liquefied vegetable stew, yogurt for a snack.

I hope now you know what tests are done before bariatric surgery and what you should eat or avoid eating before your surgery. If you have any questions, just contact our bariatric team.

Preparation and Tests Before Bariatric Surgery