Successful bariatric surgery in a patient who underwent more than 100 various operations

A 44-year-old woman who weighed 130 kg (height 158 cm, BMI 52) with a complicated psychiatric history was referred for obesity surgery because of severe sleep apnea, obesity hypoventilation syndrome with frequent pneumonias, arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, polyarthralgia and back pain, venous insufficiency, dysmenorrhea, severe heartburn, and incisional hernia. From childhood until 1983, she had undergone 106 operations, mainly for septic/pyemic and intra-abdominal abscesses, 86 of them under general anesthesia. In the 4 years before undergoing bariatric surgery, she had gained 40 kg, nonoperative attempts at weight reduction had failed. Some months before obesity surgery she could fall asleep while standing, and she noticed an entire loss of capacity for work. Respiratory disturbance index measured during sleep by Mesam-4 device was 68 events per hour. Preoperative controlled positive airway pressure (C-PAP) therapy was used. Vital indications for weight reduction were established. Bariatric surgical steps included six operations: (1) vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG); (2) relaparotomy with suspicion of peritonitis, no complications found; (3) hernioplasty simultaneously with panniculectomy; (4) revision and removal of additional flap because of marginal skin necrosis; (5) bilateral thigh dermatolipectomy simultaneously with right-side saphenectomy; and (6) removal of intramammary abscess. Twenty-four months after VBG, she had lost 39 kg (56.5 % EWL) and was doing rather well. Obesity-related diseases except back pain were relieved.