”We’ll screen patients preoperatively and look at what may be concerns going into the procedure - whether they’re obese, try to work on getting their diet under control, get their weight down. If they’re a smoker, try to help them with smoking cessation. Hopefully get them to stop or decrease their smoking in the preoperative period. Also, just a general nutritional evaluation, make sure they’re eating the right things and really optimize for the procedure.”

W. Barrett Payne, MD