Review of nutritional guidelines for patients undergoing bariatric surgery.

Health care providers often supply patients who are undergoing bariatric surgery with varying and sometimes conflicting information regarding nutrition before and after surgery. Nurses and other care providers can benefit from applying current nutritional guidelines to increase patients' understanding, compliance, nutrition, hydration, protein needs, and satisfaction. This article summarizes basic recommendations to help health care providers understand the patients' nutritional requirements and diet recommendations from two weeks before bariatric surgery to four to six weeks after surgery.