Pregnancy as a risk factor for undertreatment after bariatric surgery

A pregnant woman presented at the emergency department with severe nausea and vomiting at 20 weeks of gestational age; she was known with gastric banding. Advanced imaging studies were avoided of fear to harm the fetus. The patient continued to vomit and at 23 weeks intrauterine fetal death was noted. The symptoms did not resolve after delivery and CT scan demonstrated slippage of the gastric band over the pylorus resulting in a high digestive obstruction as the cause of hyperemesis and finally resulting necrosis of the vasa brevia. The gastric band was laparoscopically removed along with the necrotic tissue. Avoidance of radiological and endoscopic investigations of fear to harm the pregnancy resulted in complications and possibly in fetal death.