Research
Energy balance
Pre-operative Very Low Energy Diets (VLEDs) used for 14 days may reduce technical difficulty and early complications by reducing liver volume, but do not significantly impact 30-day morbidity or operative time.
A 14-day VLED might make your surgery technically easier by shrinking your liver, but it won't necessarily reduce your overall risk of complications or shorten your operation time. It is a specific tool used in some guidelines, not a general requirement.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
A large multicentre trial found that pre-operative weight loss with a 14-day VLED led to reduced technical difficulty during the surgery and fewer early post-operative complications, although there were no between-group differences in intraoperative complications, blood loss or operative time
Why this rating
Based on a large multicentre trial and a meta-analysis with mixed findings.
Source
Addressing uncertainty about the role of structured lifestyle modification for metabolic surgery patients
Enda Murphy et al. · Metabolism · 2023
DOI 10.1016/j.metabol.2023.155739
narrative_review
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Mandatory structured lifestyle modification programs prior to metabolic surgery do not improve post-operative outcomes and may cause harm by delaying access to surgery.Good
- Intentional pre-surgical weight loss, when achieved, is associated with improved surgical outcomes, including reduced complications and shorter hospital stays.Good
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