Influence of gastric banding on stomach blood supply with or without concurrent splenectomy

A lethal gastric perforation occurred after a gastric banding procedure, which was complicated with splenectomy. Prompted by this incident, an experimental study was undertaken in which regional blood flow in the stomach was measured in anesthetized cats after gastric banding or splenectomy or both. A fatal course with an extensive ischemic lesion of the stomach near the banding area was seen in all the cats with the combined procedure after 5 to 12 days. Banding alone reduced gastric blood flow within 24 hours, particularly on the greater curvature. Splenectomy also reduced blood flow along the greater curvature within 2 weeks. The combined procedure showed similar flow changes within 24 hours. The implication of these experimental results is that, if the spleen must be removed, the performance of gastric partitioning for morbid obesity should be reconsidered.