[A new approach to gastric restriction surgery in treatment of obesity. Preliminary data]

Following gastric surgery for obesity, a satisfactory weight loss and, above all, long-term weight maintenance can only be achieved in patients who have succeeded in radically changing their preoperative eating habits. In this preliminary study gastric banding is associated with rehabilitative training which was carried out using similar methods to the programs used for eating disorders. One year after surgery the results were substantially the same as those reported in the literature, with an overall weight loss of approximately 50%. The lack of correlation between weight loss and the degree of gastric banding underlines, even after a short interval, the efficacy and importance of postoperative re-educational training. The utility of this integrated approach will only be more fully evaluated after a longer period.