Presentation and surgical management of leaks after mini-gastric bypass for morbid obesity

Few data exist about the characteristics and management of enteric leaks after mini-gastric bypass (MGB).

We aimed to describe the incidence, presentation, and surgical management of enteric leaks in patients who underwent laparoscopic MGB for morbid obesity.

Private practice.

An 8-year, 9-month retrospective chart review was performed on patients who had enteric leak requiring reoperation after MGB at a single institution.

Thirty-five of 2321 patients were included. Ninety-seven percent had symptoms. Arterial hypertension and heavy smoking were predicting factors of leaks occurrence post-MGB (P<.01). Enteric leak was diagnosed by systematic upper gastrointestinal series in 4 pts (11.4%) and by computed tomography with oral water soluble contrast in 4 of 31 pts (13%). In the other 27 patients, diagnosis of the leak was made intraoperatively. Eleven patients (32%) had leak arising from the gastric stapler line (type 1), 4 (11%) from the gastrojejunal anastomosis (type 2), and 20 (57%) from undetermined origin. The most common presentation was intra-abdominal abscess in type 1 and leaks of undetermined origin and generalized peritonitis in type 2. One third of the patients who underwent reoperation developed well-drained chronic fistula into the irrigation-drainage system, with complete healing in all patients without any further procedure. The mean hospital stay was 19 days with no mortality reported.

Enteric leak leading to intra-abdominal sepsis post-MGB is rare (1.5%) An operative aggressive management based on clinical symptoms is the treatment of choice allowing no postoperative leak-related mortality and complete healing.