A tool to predict weight loss after bariatric surgery

Researchers in the city of Lille announced, on Tuesday, that they have put online a tool capable of predicting weight loss over five years for people with obesity, in order to inform their choice before considering obesity surgery, and improve their medical monitoring.

Weight, height, age, smoker/non-smoker, type of diabetes, type of intervention, direct benefit of weight loss and stabilization phase: This tool is provided by the University Hospital of Lille with researchers from the University of Lille, from INRIA (National Institute for Research in Sciences and Digital Techniques), INSERM (National Institute of Health) asks and medical research) on “seven predictive traits” that plot a patient’s curve on the screen based on the planned surgery.

INSERM engineers and a mathematician used data from 1,500 patients operated on and followed at Lille University Hospital since 2006 to develop this “decision support tool” based on an algorithm as part of a European project (IMI Sophia), which began three years ago.

The performance of this algorithm, developed by artificial intelligence, has been validated with data from more than 10,000 patients followed in France and abroad (Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore, Mexico and Brazil).

The tool can be accessed at https://bariatric-weight-trajectory-prediction.univ-lille.fr The results of this study were published in the British scientific journal The Lancet Digital Health on August 29.

“We wanted a communication tool,” Professor François Patou, director of the “Translational Research on Diabetes” unit at INSERM, said during a press conference.

“We have people asking us: What if I had surgery, what would you do?” Before, doctors said, “You will lose 30% of your weight (…) In the mind of the doctor, it means something, but it is not transmissible,” said this doctor who co-managed the project with Philippe Breaux, the head of the project. From the INRIA project team.

“If losing weight is interesting, it means it is interesting to go there,” testified Guillaume Verret, a patient whose weight dropped from 135 to 88 kg after gastric reduction surgery at the age of 36 7 years ago. “The operation is not a miracle solution, behind it there is a lot of work to be done in the long term: vitamin supplements, lifelong physical activity, diet, rhythms, etc.,” he said.