Bariatric Tele-screening During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Holding Back for Direct Approval?

Many bariatric centers were restricted from providing routine care for outpatients. Telehealth visits allowed the continued care for outpatients and thus the preoperative screening for bariatric candidates. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of tele-screening on the multidisciplinary obesity team's decision (MDD) for bariatric surgery: disapproval, direct approval, or a recommendation for a prehabilitation program.

Hospital data were collected from patients who underwent face-to-face or tele-screening for bariatric surgery between April and December 2020. The tele-screening cohort was then compared with a propensity-matched cohort of patients with face-to-face consultations. A chi-square and multinomial logistic regression analyses were performed.

After propensity matching, 396 patients remained for analysis. The majority received preoperative prehabilitation advice in both the tele-screening and face-to-face group (51% versus 50%). Although not significant, there were more direct approvals and fewer denials in the face-to-face group (p = 0.691). The multinomial logistic regression analysis showed no significant impact of tele-screening on the MDD result.

Tele-screening in bariatric centers is feasible; the multidisciplinary team's decision was not significantly different between tele-screening and face-to-face screening which encourages the use of tele-screening in the future. An insignificant amount of fewer direct approvals and more denials were observed in the tele-screening group, which should be taken into account in future and larger case studies.