Fully Ambulatory Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy: 328 Consecutive Patients in a Single Tertiary Bariatric Center

Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is becoming one of the most popular bariatric procedures because of its short operative time, good resolution of comorbidities, excellent weight loss, and low complications rate. However, the safety of LSG as a day-surgery procedure has not yet been widely documented.

A retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected bariatric database, in a single institution, between August 2012 and February 2015, yielded 980 patients who underwent LSG; 328 patients (33.5 %) responded to established criteria and were operated on a 1-day surgery basis (length of stay < 12 h).

There were 258 (78 %) primary LSG and 70 revisional LSG (22 %) performed on 284 females and 44 males, with a mean age (±SD) of 38 ± 9 years. Mean (±SD) preoperative body mass index (BMI) was 45 ± 6 kg/m(2). Operative time was 68 ± 17 min (mean ± SD). There were no deaths. A total of 322 patients (98.2 %) were discharged home the day of surgery. There were 6 (1.8 %) unplanned overnight hospitalization, and 28 patients (8.5 %) were readmitted between days 1 and 30. Most patients (25/34, 73 %) were hospitalized for minor problems, such as pain, nausea, and/or vomiting. There were two cases of (0.6 %) gastric staple line leaks, three (0.9 %) of intra-abdominal hematomas, two (0.6 %) of pneumonia, one (0.3 %) of acute pancreatitis, and one (0.3 %) of urinary tract infection. All patients recovered well.

LSG can be performed as an outpatient procedure in selected patients, with acceptable results in terms of retention, readmission, and complication rates.