Chest pain in the early postoperative period after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding: four case reports

Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is gaining popularity as a technique for achieving effective weight loss in the severely obese population. It is a minimally invasive procedure and the reported early morbidity is low. However, we have observed at our institution that occasional patients complain of central chest pain, mimicking angina (verbal pain score of > 7 out of 10), within 2 h after the procedure. This is a worrying symptom because obesity is known to be a major risk factor for developing cardiovascular complications. We have now performed 250 LAGB operations at our hospital. The following four case reports document our patients who presented with early chest pain postoperatively. Common characteristics of male gender, morbid obesity and some degree of obstructive sleep apnoea were identified among the cases. The aetiology of the chest pain is uncertain; nevertheless, close monitoring is vital to exclude pathological events such as acute coronary syndrome.