-Case Reports-

Reemployment and Recovery from Stigma after Metabolic/Bariatric Surgery: A Case Report and Review

Ryosuke Nakata¹, Nobuhiko Taniai¹, Naoto Chihara¹, Hideyuki Suzuki² and Hiroshi Yoshida³

¹Department of Gastrointestinal and Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Nippon Medical School Musashi Kosugi Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan
²Department of Gastrointestinal and Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Nippon Medical School Chiba Hokusoh Hospital, Chiba, Japan
³Department of Gastrointestinal and Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan

Bariatric surgery is performed worldwide to address morbid obesity. The benefits of this surgery are weight loss and a decrease in obesity-related complications. The relationship between metabolic/bariatric surgery and reemployment has been evaluated in Western countries, but few such studies have been performed in Japan because the number of metabolic/bariatric surgeries is small. Only a limited number of Japanese studies have evaluated the effects of bariatric surgery on obesity stigma, which affects employment and advancement opportunities for obese persons and may result in dismissal. We describe a case of bariatric surgery for a 39-year-old man who was dismissed from his job because of morbid obesity. Traditional weight loss methods failed to maintain weight loss and, preoperatively, the patient was receiving treatment for type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and abnormal lipid metabolism. He underwent sleeve gastrectomy and lost 50.4 kg (percent excess weight loss: 68.1%) in the first postoperative year. All medications were stopped after improvement in the results of laboratory blood tests and he was reemployed at 8 months after surgery. Increased social activity associated with employment is a factor in suppressing rebound weight gain after bariatric surgery, and weight loss associated with bariatric surgery helps decrease anti-obesity social stigma.

J Nippon Med Sch 2023; 90: 282-287

Keywords
bariatric surgery, morbid obesity, social stigma, type 2 diabetes

Correspondence to
Ryosuke Nakata, Department of Gastrointestinal and Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Nippon Medical School Musashi Kosugi Hospital, 1-383 Kosugi-cho, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 211-8533, Japan
s00-056@nms.ac.jp

Received, August 27, 2021
Accepted, December 15, 2021