Bjørn Richelsen, who is professor of clinical nutrition at Aarhus University and consultant at Aarhus University Hospital, has just received substantial funding from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The grant will help to improve the treatment relating to weight loss surgery.

Bjørn Richelsen is one of Denmark’s leading experts in the field of nutrition and obesity. For more than 25 years he has been responsible for the treatment of obesity and bariatric surgery, better known in lay-terms as weight loss surgery.

He has now received DKK 1,050,000 from the Novo Nordisk Foundation for the project: Health consequences of bariatric surgery with special focus on medical and nutritional complications - based on a register study and a larger clinical follow-up study.

Bariatric surgery gives large weight loss, but it is at the same time associated with a number of surgical and medical, psychological and nutritional complications.

“No one has previously carried out a complete overview of the occurrence of nutritional, psychological and surgical complications after bariatric surgery in Denmark, and we have only limited data from abroad,” says Bjørn Richelsen.

Responsible for weight loss surgery

And he believes that an overview will be of great importance in order to be able to better establish the indications for bariatric surgery and to improve both the prevention and treatment of the complications.

“The research will be a significant contribution to the current debate on surgery’s place in the future treatment of obesity, and it is expected to play a role for guidelines in the area,” says Bjørn Richelsen, and emphasises that an important contribution in the continuing work towards better treatment of obesity is especially to reduce the number of complications in connection with the operation.

Bjørn Richelsen had primary responsibility for a report on weight loss surgery that led to the most obese people being able to undergo surgery for their obesity. He has also written more than 200 scientific articles about obesity and nutrition and he was a member of the Danish Nutrition Council for nine years, which advises Danes on healthy diet and lifestyle. From 2003 to 2006 he was chairman of the council.

Further information

Professor Bjørn Richelsen
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Endocrinology and Internal Medicine
Email: bjoric@rm.dk
Tel.: +45 7846 7679
Mobile: +45 5150 5149

bjoric@rm.dk