Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to True north, your destination for better health, brought to you by North Mississippi Health Services.
Each episode, we sit down with experts from across our health system to explore the topics that matter most to you and your family.
From prevention and wellness to the latest treatments and health care innovations, we're here to provide trusted information that helps you make informed decisions and live a healthier life.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Welcome and thanks for joining us. About bariatric weight loss and surgery.
I'm TJ Adams, the administrator of North Mississippi Medical Center, Tupelo. Joining me today is Dr. Terry Pinson and Dr. Will Cauthen, both general surgeons that specialize in bariatric surgery. Welcome, guys. Thank you.
So. So, guys, as we have a conversation today, just. Just tell me about bariatric surgery and what you bring at North Mississippi Medical center. And let's just go over the benefits of weight loss surgery and then also the weight loss program that you guys participate in.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:11] Speaker D: So bariatric surgery is a field of medicine encompassing the study of obesity, is causes, prevention, and therapy. And so bariatric surgery is that process of operating on patients who battle obesity. And with obesity, they have generally have a multitude of medical conditions such as sleep apnea, reflux, diabetes, things of that nature, hypertension.
So you're treating all those processes when you treat somebody that's battling obesity. And that's what we bring to the table. Bariatric surgery.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: So in bariatric surgery, both you guys had been practicing surgeons at the health system, in the health system for. For many years. Would you mind giving your background and your experience?
[00:01:54] Speaker D: Yeah. So I've been here for 31 years and we built the bariatric program. I've been doing bariatric surgery ever since I came in 1995. We first did open bariatric surgery. Then we did laparoscopic bariatric surgery starting in 2001. And then we built our bariatric program and it's been very, very comprehensive program and started in 2007 and. And since then we have transitioned from more laparoscopy to. To robotic surgery. And we'll talk a little bit more about that as we go forward.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: What about you, Dr. Cauthen
[00:02:27] Speaker C: Yeah, so I came here in 2014 and, you know, didn't really do a lot of bariatrics in my training, but kind of saw, you know, maybe a need there and an interest. And so shortly after I got here in 2014, I started doing cases with Dr. Pinson and then kind of doing cases on my own shortly after that. So I've been doing them for about the last 10 years. And yeah, since that time, I mean, we, you know, we were doing all laparoscopic ruined Y bypass in the gastric sleeve. Now we kind of transition mostly into gastric sleeve.
[00:02:58] Speaker D: And.
[00:02:58] Speaker C: And then the last two to three years, we transitioned over to doing robotic assisted. And so we've also opened a medical weight loss clinic in that time. So, you know, we provide kind of a full gamut of everything. We have our own dietitian, we have our nurse practitioners, exercise physiologists. So we kind of have the total package. We do, you know, lifestyle modifications and coaching. We do medical management, and then we focus on surgical management.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: So you have the comprehensive team.
[00:03:24] Speaker C: We have everything.
[00:03:25] Speaker D: Yeah. The most comprehensive program in the state. Yeah, by far.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Well, and then also the experience, if you, if you look as you. As you say, we, you know, you build hospital. 31 years.
Dr. Cawthon, your number was how long?
[00:03:41] Speaker C: Started my 13th year. So I think together we've done a little bit, a little bit over 4,000 cases.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: So experience matters. Yeah, and you guys have that experience by far. So as we, as we move through the podcast today, we want to talk about the benefits of weight loss and the improvement. And you guys, would you mind giving some scenarios? I know from a patient standpoint, obesity is a disease. It's one of the top diseases in the, in the south and especially in Mississippi. So talk through the things you deal with as surgeons and providers daily, and then also how we can improve the obesity in our region, but especially in our Tupelo and the surrounding areas.
[00:04:20] Speaker D: Well, I saw a patient just a couple hours ago, and he talked about his course. He's a year out. He's lost 185 pounds and his BMI is now 26, which is getting close to ideal weight.
And he said, look, I studied for two or three years. I thought about a bariatric procedure, but I was terrified.
I thought, an operation for obesity, I should be able to do it any other way. And he tried everything. He had sleep apnea, hypertension. He couldn't get around.
He was affecting his job. He couldn't go and work on a routine basis. He missed a lot of days because of his health conditions related to obesity.
And when he finally showed up, he goes, it's been the best year of my life. He goes, I've lost 185 pounds. My sleep apnea is gone, my hypertension is gone. I don't have miss any work, and I can do things I couldn't do before. And that's one of the Things that, other than medical conditions, it's just when patients can feel like they can be themselves again, they can get out and play with their kids, they can have adventures they couldn't have. What I mean by that is maybe, you know, go zip lining or things of that nature. And most patients is pretty amazing.
That's what they're excited about.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I would agree. I mean, this is a situation we see on a weekly basis. I think, number one is like, you know, number one, we've got to convince people or reassure people that bariatric surgery is safe.
You know, I think bariatric surgery got kind of a bad rap back in the, let's say, you know, early to mid-90s, maybe early 2000s, where there were some. Some surgeons that were doing some things that maybe weren't in the best interest of patients. And we had some bad outcomes in our field. And, you know, once you get a bad reputation, it's kind of hard to shake that. So once all that stuff kind of got taken care of and we've moved on and we have better, you know, better techniques and better operations and more oversight and things like that. You know, bariatric surgery is one of the safest procedures that we perform, that I perform.
You know, everything we do is, you know, it's, it's. It's reportable, it's national data, it's public data.
You know, you can't hide anything in bariatric surgery. So, number one, it's safe. And then, number two, it's. It's a very effective operation and it does exactly what it's intended to do.
I think overall, just as a health care community, we need to be more aggressive about treating obesity.
You know, I've said numerous times in the past, obesity is one of the last areas where, you know, you could openly discriminate against patients or people, and nobody really cares or says anything about it. So we need to get away from that. We need to be more aggressive about treating it because it works.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: So let's talk a little more around our program. We're nationally accredited program, go through accreditation
[00:07:07] Speaker D: ever every couple years. We all of our.
Just like Dr. Cauthen mentioned, all of our numbers of all of our patients go into a national database. It's 100% of them go into a national database. And we're compared against all the other programs in the United States every six months. And then every two years, we have a formal two to three years, we have a formal accreditation program where surgeons and come in and evaluate our entire program. They look at our database and then we discuss any kind of complications, any kind of processes that we have. They look at every process we have from the time the patient arrives until the, you know, in long term follow up. So it's a very comprehensive process. And the certification program is necessary and is necessary for a variety of reasons. One's the safety, just like Dr. Cauthen mentioned, the safety now of a bariatric procedure is the same as a gallbladder operation, which is the most commonly performed operation by general surgeons in the United States. And it's the same, it's just as safe.
So all that data goes in there and you're compared and we look at that, that information and then you're, when you come back in the certification process, you discuss everything that you're doing and any problems that you've had, put plans for the future, how you can make it better.
And we do that.
[00:08:25] Speaker C: That's everything. I mean, if we do an operation on a patient and they do, you know, do very well, if they come back in within 30 days with a UTI, we have to present that case.
Everything is scrutinized.
So, you know,
[00:08:40] Speaker B: so the total care of a patient, if you look at it, it's all being recorded, everything.
And, and our numbers are really good and have always been that way and we strive for that. And that's the team, have that team concept. That's not just the surgeons but your team behind you that's helping support. Oh yeah, each and every day.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: Yeah, it's, you know, yeah, we have a huge team of people that help us. It's not just us, okay. I mean, we never want to act like, you know, we're maybe the ones that are kind of on the forefront, but we're definitely not out there alone. We have all our nurses, nurse practitioners, dietitians, exercise physiologists, you know, clinic staff. Yes, there's a lot of people behind the scenes that make our program successful.
[00:09:16] Speaker D: And we also have the other specialties that work with us directly. So we have, everybody buys into our program. Our cardiologist, our gastroenterologist, our, you know, pretty much everybody is buying into our program.
[00:09:29] Speaker C: That's one thing I like about here. You know, Tupelo is like, you know, we function like a big city center because we provide everything. But you really, we're really just kind of a small town or a medium sized town, you know, however you want to say it. So like, I mean, for example, you know, we have every specialty there is or if I see a patient and they need you know, let's say a patient comes in and they're having an issue and they need an egd.
You know, we don't put a referral in and wait for a gastroenterology to get back to him in three or four days. I pick up the phone, I call the gastroenterologist right then, and they get them scoped later that week.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: I mean, who is a person, you
[00:10:06] Speaker C: know, who is a person I know whose son is on my son's baseball team? Do I see at the ball field everywhere?
[00:10:11] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: These are not like people that I, you know, see their names in the halls. These are people that I see on a daily basis. I see them at the ball field, you know. You see them at church.
[00:10:19] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: They're your partner in the process.
[00:10:21] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly, man. And the same with cardiology. Pulmonary gastroenterology could be anything.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to True north, your destination for better health. For more information and resources related to today's episode, visit the links in our show notes. Until next time, stay healthy, stay informed, and remember, you are our true north.
