Narrative Medicine and Surgery

Bariatric surgery is the most effective long-term treatment for morbid obesity, if well-conducted medical treatments have failed.The value of preparation and follow-up by a multidisciplinary team has been widely documented.But in guidelines of good practice, recommendations are mainly associated with medical and surgical risks. There is little room given to patients' life stories, their involvement and their real motivation.The integration of the patient into an individual and collective narrative journey allows them to express their feelings and to share their own experience facing the disease or the procedure, while also being exposed to the stories of other patients. The goal is to challenge patients to consider surgery as not the only decisive step, but as one step in the process. Although these practices are already well established, their scientific evaluation remains essential.We report here the practical results of various narrative tools with the patient in the patient's own words, including the study of their motivation letters and the play, “Dame Ô”.We are starting a prospective study based on the analysis of the cover letters produced by patients from Limoges, candidates for bariatric surgery.