I'm doing the pre-op diet either way, I'm just having doubts about this.

It's to shrink the liver before surgery. The liver is above the stomach when the doctor goes in and it is known to make the liver smaller to prevent injury.

It is actually for shrinking the liver. The liver lays over the stomach and has to be pulled back for surgery. In rare cases, if the liver is too big, they cannot reach the stomach to perform surgery and they have to cancel the surgery.

The weight loss that comes with the liquid diet is also a plus, every pound lost is a less likely chance of complications!

Edited December 10, 20196 yr by SorryNameTaken

It's to reduce the fat in and around the liver making it easier to move and less likely to tear/break during surgery. (No one wants a tear in the liver or a surgeon to open up look around and decide its to risky- so just close, no surgery this time or convert the surgery from laproscopic to open ?)

Trust the process even though its TOUGH

Good Luck ?

Edited December 10, 20196 yr by GreenTealael

Follow your Dr

It's for liver shrinking - when you go on that liquid diet and go low carb you lose your glucose stores in your liver as well.

I have never found a good explanation of what the liquid pre-op diet actually does. Yes, clean out the stomach and intestines before surgery, but that only takes a day, or a few hours. Shrink/improve the liver condition - yes, sorta, but that doesn't take a liquid diet to do, just one that is low in carbohydrates. Annoy and/or punish the patient for being obese - most certainly! Make the post-op recovery and diet transitions more difficult - quite possibly.

Most aren't required to do a liquid diet pre-op, but rather some kind of hybrid with a light meat/veg meal or two and a protein drink or two per day, and many others aren't required to do anything special at all.

I had to do clear liquids for something like 24 hours before surgery. That part is to clean out your GI tract. The rest of it is to shrink your liver to make surgery easier.

For losing some weight and strinking the liver the less fatty the liver is the easier it is for your surgeon to work on your stomach

7 hours ago, Ninja-slash-nerd said:

I'm doing the pre-op diet either way, I'm just having doubts about this.

hmm did they not give you any information on it?

I'm in the UK & I was told why they do it by the surgeon, nurse, dietician AND given a booklet with 3 liver shrinking diets in it that I could choose from OR mix and match them.

So, I could do calorie counting, shakes or the liquid/milk one. I avoided the milk one because of needing to have a lot post-op so I did the shakes with 1 x400 calorie meal in the evening.

I would be more concerned that they hadn't given you the basic info rather than the point of the diet. It is really important patients do it as 'green tealeal' said above, they can get in there, find your liver is too big/hard to move and cancel the op. Which does happen!

Yep, it is hard, but so worth it if you come on here to share your struggles and constantly remind yourself why you are doing it Remember 99% of us also had to do it too and we made it through the other side, so if you come on to vent we will totally get how you are feeling and can help you through it when it gets hard

I didn't have to do any pre-op diet. The only thing I had to do was liquids after noon on the day before surgery. My surgeon used a special liver retractor that made the pre-op liquid diet unnecessary. I did have to drink a NASTY high carb drink the morning of surgery so my body would have energy during and immediately after the surgery.

I feel starting liquids preop definitely helped me post op because most ppl are on liquids directly after surgery anyway...

I'm 6.5 weeks out and still doing good mostly on shakes and that keeps me satisfied.

Do yoghurt and hummus at times. Have tried a few solid things this week and wasn't a pleasant feeling so I'm fine sticking to shakes mostly and happy.

I feel there's no reason to rush into solid and real meals because that is when calorie counting becomes even more stringent...