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Morbid obesity after spinal cord injury: an ailment not to be treated?

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 67, pages 998–999 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

A 28-year-old man with a T12 incomplete paraplegia after a spinal cord injury (SCI) was referred for weight management in October 2011. He reported a weight gain from about 120 to 180.3 kg since his SCI. He put on a further 11.4 kg in January 2012 despite intensive dietetic treatment, including very low-caloric diet, anti obesity medication and active physiotherapy programme. He had undergone an uncomplicated laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass successfully in March 2012. For the first 7 months after surgery, his total weight loss was 32.4 kg. He has shown functional improvement (6 min walking distance and Berg balance score). There were important improvements in body mass index; waist circumference; mid-upper arm circumference; triceps-skinfold thickness; mid-arm muscle circumference; total cholesterol; high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol; and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and triglycerides. This report describes the first UK morbidly obese SCI patient who has undergone gastric bypass surgery and highlights the provision of bariatric surgery as an option to consider if all nonsurgical interventions have been tried.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr Marwan Farouk and Dr Claire Nightingale, Ms Fayth Armitage, Ms Lynsey Spillman, Mrs Judith Earl and Mrs Liz Pryke in facilitating this case. We also thank Dr Allison Graham and Dr Joost van Middendorp to review the manuscript. Written consent to publish was obtained. Written informed consent was obtained from patient before data collection and case report publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, National Spinal Injuries Centre, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury, UK

    S Wong, T Barnes, M Coggrave, E Pounds-Cornish, S Appleton & M Belci

  2. Centre for Gastroenterology and Clinical Nutrition, University College London, London, UK

    S Wong & A Forbes

Authors
  1. S Wong
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  2. T Barnes
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  3. M Coggrave
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  4. A Forbes
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  5. E Pounds-Cornish
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  6. S Appleton
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  7. M Belci
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to S Wong.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Contributors: All authors have read and approved the final version submitted for publication. All authors have made substantial contributions and final approval of the conceptions, drafting and final version. SW—data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation. TB—physiotherapy intervention, data collection, manuscript revision. LPC–psychological intervention, manuscript revision. MC—nursing intervention, manuscript revision. AF—academic supervision, manuscript revision. SA—Surgical intervention, manuscript revision. MB—Clinical supervision, manuscript revision and guarantor of the paper.

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Wong, S., Barnes, T., Coggrave, M. et al. Morbid obesity after spinal cord injury: an ailment not to be treated?. Eur J Clin Nutr 67, 998–999 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.129

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.129

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