Dear Editor,
We appreciate the letter to the editor from Toprak et al. and their thoughtful feedback on our study, “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”.
We welcome this opportunity to clarify and expand on a few points raised by the authors.
Our study included a cohort of 4418 patients, of which 5.0% were classified as ASA 4 according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification. The primary objective of our research was to evaluate the outcomes of routine preoperative abdominal ultrasound (US) and to investigate how alternative radiological techniques could guide further diagnostic steps in cases requiring additional evaluation. We examined how these findings impacted decisions to proceed with surgery as planned, implement surgical modifications, or postpone or cancel the procedure.