Preoperative Endoscopic and Radiologic Evaluation of Bariatric Patients: What Do They Add?

Preoperative esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and barium swallow (BS) are commonly performed for evaluation in bariatric surgery patients. The routine use of these modalities has been controversial.

A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database was performed to include primary bariatric surgery patients between March 2013 and August 2016.

Two hundred nine patients were included. All the patients underwent preoperative EGD and BS. The mean age was 43.12 years and BMI 46.4 kg/m². Reflux symptoms were present in 58.5% of patients. Preoperative EGD revealed abnormalities in 87.5% of patients: esophagitis (54.5%), Barrett's esophagus (5.3%), dysplasia (1%), and gastritis (51%). Endoscopic evidence of HH was documented in 52.2% of patients while only 34% of patients had evidence of HH in their BS. Of the asymptomatic patients, 80.2% had abnormal EGD. Helicobacter pylori on biopsy was found in 17.2% patients, out of which 47.2% were asymptomatic. Based on EGD findings, the choice of surgical procedure was changed in 3.34% of patients. Repair of HH was performed in 107 patients, with 68.2% (n = 73) symptomatic patients and 31.8% (n = 34) asymptomatic patients. On ROC analysis, EGD was better predictive of the presence of HH (AUC = 0.802, OR 5.20, p  =   < 0.0001) and symptoms were a poor indicator for GERD.

Preoperative EGD is abnormal in the majority of patients regardless of their symptoms. EGD is the only modality that can provide tissue sample, which can potentially determine the type of bariatric surgery. Given the low diagnostic accuracy of BS, its routine use can be eliminated.