[Endoscopy and bariatric surgery. A new challenge?]

Obesity in Mexico appears with a frequency of 38.4% in men and 43.3% in women. Within the therapeutic options, bariatric surgery is defined as the only effective treatment in the long term, and the number of procedures is increasing. Postoperative complications are sometimes challenging for those who are evaluating them. We undertook this study to describe and to correlate endoscopic findings with gastrointestinal symptoms in patients who have undergone a bariatric procedure.

This was a descriptive, prospective and longitudinal study that included all patients who underwent bariatric surgery between January 2004 and October 2006 and who presented gastrointestinal symptoms requiring postoperative endoscopic evaluation.

Thirty-six patients were subjected to 45 videoendoscopies between January 2004 and October 2006. The most frequent endoscopic findings were normal postsurgical anatomy (18 patients, 50%), marginal ulcer (5 patients, 13.8%), stomal stenosis (8 patients, 22.2%), and migration of gastric band (1 patient, 2.7%). Abdominal pain was the most frequent symptom, appearing in 58.3% of patients, mainly in those with normal endoscopy. Nausea and vomiting were reported in 55.5% of the cases; 25% of the procedures done in the first 6 months were normal as compared with 75% of the cases that were done after 6 months.

Normal videoendoscopy was the most frequent finding among patients who had undergone a bariatric procedure. Stomal stenosis was the most frequent abnormality. The presence of abdominal pain beginning 6 months postoperatively is a characteristic that predicts normal videoendoscopy.