Complications of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass

Bariatric surgery is a method of treating morbid obesity, which has been raising more and more interest in the past years. Among all types of intervention, the most frequently used is Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, an intervention both restrictive and malabsorptive, which leads to best results in weight loss. In Romania, bariatric surgery, and especially Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, is not widely practiced due to poor addressability of patients, both due to lack of information, and to poor recommendation from general practitioners and specialists in metabolic diseases.

The study group includes 14 patients aged between 18 and 65 years old, with BMI above 40 kg m2. The study aims to present the complications that occurred in this group of patients in which we performed Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in the Surgery Department of the Emergency City Hospital Timişoara. The surgery was performed by xifo-umbilical laparotomy technique. Subsequently, patients were followed postoperatively at 1 month, and then every 3 months, up to 2 years.

The only complications we found were wound infections (7/14 - 50%) and incisional hernias (5/14 - 35.71%).

We only found in our group only complications related to the postoperative wound that can be minimized by modifying the suturing technique of the abdominal wall. Gastric bypass should be performed despite all incriminated risks, providing a better lifestyle to obese patients.