HMC’s Dr. Yannis Raftopoulos to Present at Obesity Week 2018

HOLYOKE — Holyoke Medical Center’s Dr. Yannis Raftopoulos, a board-certified bariatric surgeon and weight-management specialist, has been selected to give a podium presentation at Obesity Week 2018 in Nashville, Tenn. in November.

Obesity Week is an international event focused on the basic science, clinical application, surgical intervention, and prevention of obesity. By combining both the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and the Obesity Society (TOS) annual meetings, Obesity Week is the largest obesity meeting in the world, bringing together world-renowned experts in obesity to share innovation and breakthroughs in science. 

“I am very excited to be presenting at Obesity Week; being selected among presentation candidates from across the globe is a humbling honor,” Raftopoulos said. “I am proud to share the work my team and I have created regarding successful outcomes for our patients.”

Raftopoulos will present his findings on effectively assisting patients in losing 10{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of their body weight before bariatric surgery. With a sample size of nearly 1,400 patients, out of which 190 patients were from Holyoke Medical Center, patients who are able to lose more than 10{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of their body weight before bariatric surgery had substantially better results after two years post-surgery than those who did not lose weight or lost less than 10{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of their body weight. This is the first time that such effective weight loss prior to surgery has been reported and additionally has been linked to better weight loss after surgery long-term.

“We are very proud of the Weight Management Program that we have built at Holyoke Medical Center because for the first time we have been able to demonstrate that having an effective non-surgical weight loss program improves the results of our bariatric surgery weight loss program,” Raftopoulos said.

The HMC Weight Management Program is the only site in the Northeast participating in an FDA trial assessing the efficacy of the revolutionary intragastric balloon. The device is swallowed as a pill and requires no endoscopy, sedation, or anesthesia to be placed or removed. This trial began in early 2018 and will be completed in early 2019.