“Is this going to work, doctor?” » Surgeons hear this question regularly. And this is of course the case in bariatric surgery, where different types of operations aim to modify the anatomy of the digestive system to reduce obesity. This surgical practice, which has been practiced for around thirty years, has experienced a small revolution in recent months.
Researchers from Lille have just presented the results of an international study on the prediction of weight loss after this type of operation. Thanks to a digital medical device developed in Lille, within Inria (National Institute for Research in Digital Sciences and Technologies), patients will be able to know in a personalized way the weight loss expected during the five years following the operation.
“Essential tool for patient monitoring”
After publication of the results of this study, on August 29, in the British scientific journal The Lancet Digital Healththe prediction software has been put online at here. “It is an essential tool for monitoring patients, but also for making decisions regarding a surgical operation or not,” explains Professor François Pattou, specialist in bariatric surgery at Lille University Hospital. Because if the operation allows a rapid loss of around 30% of weight, the evolution, subsequently, is not linear and obeys very precise criteria. And it was these criteria that had to be defined first.
“In Lille, we had nearly 200 data concerning more than 2,000 patients operated on over the past fifteen years, but we were not able to predict exactly the effects of bariatric surgery when a patient asked us the question. We needed an IT tool,” admits François Pattou.
Artificial intelligence and algorithm
A partnership was then established with Inria, four years ago, to create this tool. “The medical world was a new scientific adventure for us,” says Philippe Preux, IT manager at Inria. The Lille data was supplemented by data from seven other European, American and Asian countries in order to create the most reliable prediction model possible.
Thus, thanks to the contribution of artificial intelligence and from algorithms, the software calculates its predictions based on a few very simple criteria: the weight before the operation, the height and age of the patient, but also his history of smoking and whether he is diabetic or not. “The type of surgical operation also comes into play, but not the sex of the patient, contrary to what one might have believed,” emphasizes François Pattou, delighted with the result.
Like the weight curve of children
“When we compared the predictions coming out of the software with reality, we saw that there was no difference and therefore that the calculation method worked,” he says happily. Bariatric surgery has revolutionized the care of patients with obesity; today it is taking a new step in monitoring. » And for a country like France which practices this type of operation a lot (3rd in the world), it can be very useful.
Guillaume Veret can attest to this. This SNCF employee was 33 years old when he had the operation in 2017. “I weighed 135 kg and my weight stabilized for a while at 88 kg after the operation with the gastric bypass technique,” testifies. he. Due to confinement, he gained eight kilos before losing four again.
At the time, there was no software capable of drawing an individualized weight curve. “It’s difficult to live with because you wonder if this weight gain is normal,” he admits. With this software, the roadmap she draws removes psychological weight. We know what weight range we should be in. A bit like the weight curve to follow established for children. »