Early effects of bougie size on sleeve gastrectomy outcome

When performing sleeve gastrectomy, a bougie (32 to 60 French) is used. We evaluated 2 different bougie sizes on early postoperative outcomes and long-term weight loss.

A 1-year prospective study was conducted on patients undergoing sleeve gastrectomy. In the first 6 months, patients had 32-French bougies (Group 1); in the second 6 months, they had 36-French bougies (Group 2).

We evaluated 131 patients. No intraoperative complications or mortality occurred. Postoperatively, Group 1 (n = 72) had a longer hospital stay (1.6 ± .8 vs 1.3 ± .5 days, P = .04) and used more Ondansetron for nausea than Group 2 (n = 59) (6.7 ± 8.0 vs 5.3 ± 4.5 mg, P = .2, respectively). Ten (14%) patients in Group 1 returned to the emergency department compared with 5 (9%) in Group 2. One-year percent excess weight loss was similar (73.0 ± 20.6% vs 71.1 ± 20.9%, P = .73, respectively).

The smaller bougie resulted in a longer hospital stay, with tendency toward increased nausea, more emergency department visits, and readmissions. Long-term weight loss was not affected.