Initial Postoperative Management: Adult Bariatric Surgery

Initial postoperative management is similar to adult bariatric surgery including particular attention to early warning signs of gastrointestinal leak. Once patients are discharged they are advanced to a high protein liquid diet and slowly advanced during follow up. Given the significant needs of the adolescent patient, including but not limited to psychosocial issues, patients are seen on a more regular basis than their adult counterparts. That includes weekly visits for 1 month, then monthly for 6 months, and then every 3rd month for the next 18 months then yearly thereafter (Linden & Barnett, 2016).
Dietary advancement after the first month is a methodical process of introducing new items of gradually increasing complexity toward the goal