The Role of Preoperative Abdominal Ultrasound in the Preparation of Patients Undergoing Primary Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery: A Machine Learning Algorithm on 4418 Patients' Records.

Our study found that preoperative ultrasound demonstrated clinical utility for a subset of patients undergoing metabolic bariatric surgery. Specifically, 15.9% of the cohort benefited from the identification of chronic calculous cholecystitis, leading to concomitant cholecystectomy. Additionally, surgery was postponed in 1.4% of the cases due to other findings. While these findings indicate a potential benefit in certain cases, further research, including a cost-benefit analysis, is necessary to fully evaluate routine preoperative ultrasound's overall utility and economic impact in this patient population.