ABSTRACT
Nutritional assessment is an important component of the preoperative evaluation of the patient pursuing bariatric surgery. It is a requirement by most third-party payers to fulfill the prior authorization criteria in order to deem bariatric surgery medically necessary. More importantly, a careful nutritional assessment offers relevant information regarding a patient’s medical and emotional health, health risks, eating habits, weight history, and weight loss efforts that can help both the patient and clinician assess the role of bariatric surgery on a patient’s health and his or her lifelong efforts at weight management.
