Purpose
Obesity has become a global health concern, associated with decreased quality of life and life expectancy. Although bariatric surgery has many benefits (e.g., substantial and durable weight loss, amelioration of comorbidities, and improvement in functionality), its patient attrition rate is relatively high. Therefore, we aim to assess the causes of withdrawal from our program.
Materials and Methods
We interviewed patients who dropped out of our bariatric surgery program between January 2016 and December 2021. A total of 1999 patients were eligible for bariatric surgery during this period, and 255 patients withdrew from the program. We interviewed patients over the phone to find out the reason for withdrawal. We divided participants into two groups: dropouts before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several options explaining the reason for leaving the program were presented to the patients to choose from.
Results
The number of patients who withdrew from the program before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was 135 (8.9%) and 120 (25.2%), respectively. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most patients (49.1%) stated that the long waiting time was the cause of withdrawal. Even though during the COVID-19 pandemic, the main causes of attrition were the fear of contracting the disease and COVID-19 infection; the most common reason unrelated to COVID-19 was still the long preoperative preparation.
Conclusion
Long waiting time was the most common cause of patient attrition before bariatric surgery. To reduce the attrition rate, more studies should be conducted to find an optimized waiting time before bariatric surgery.
Graphical Abstract
Cardiac angiofibroma is a very rare diagnosis when a patient develops an
intracardiac mass. It is a primary benign cardiac tumor with a scarcity
of information in the literature. This case report illustrates a
26-year-old man with a complaint of chronic chest tightness who was
firstly diagnosed with right ventricle tumor by echocardiography then
underwent cardiac MRI which confirmed the presence of a highly-vascular
tumor with radiologically benign behavior. Then his tumor was excised,
his postoperative course was uncomplicated and he was well within almost
2 months after discharge. Ultimately the histopathologic findings
demonstrated vascular and stromal tissue in favor of angiofibroma and
excluded the other diagnoses with IHC and trichrome staining.
Angiofibroma is a benign, highly vascular tumor, mostly discovered in
the nasopharynx. When it is found in the heart, CMR and pathology are
pivotal to rule in its diagnosis. It is isointense in T1 weighted and
hyperintense in T2 weighted sequences with intense enhancement following
contrast injection. Its pathology contains an admixture of vasculatures
with CD31 positive immunoreactivity for endothelial cells and fibrotic
tissue with bluish coloration in trichrome staining. Eventually, its
treatment includes merely surgical excision given its benign nature.
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