My Greatest Nutritional Challenge

The Registered Dietitian (RD) has an important role in the care of the bariatric patient by providing preoperative and postoperative medical nutrition therapy. The purpose of this case study was to demonstrate the RD's role in working with a non-compliant preoperative patient as she prepared for weight loss surgery (WLS). The patient was not motivated to make changes in the quality of her diet or modify her eating behaviors, and was unwilling to stop smoking. The process to qualify for WLS extended to two years when a medical emergency prompted her to make necessary changes to qualify for surgery. Her non-compliance with dietary interventions prior to surgery did not result in poor outcome or non-compliance following dietary guidelines after surgery. This case study revealed non-compliance preoperatively was not predictive of postoperative WLS outcome. The results may prompt others to further investigate predictors of success for WLS.