Endoscopic Findings in Candidate Patients for Bariatric Surgery

. Obesity is a risk factor for gastrointestinal diseases such as gastroesophageal reflux disease, erosive esophagitis, and hiatal hernia, among others. The presence of some of these diseases during the preoperative bariatric study may condition the surgical technique to be performed.

. We conducted a retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study from a prospectively collected database of patients with obesity treated with bariatric surgery between January 2016 and June 2022 who systematically underwent preoperative upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.

. We evaluated 704 patients who were candidates for bariatric surgery. The mean age of the patients was 40 years, predominantly female (71.6%). The most frequent endoscopic findings were gastropathies, which appeared in 98.9% (n: 696) of the patients, followed by esophageal disorders in 11.6% (n: 82). The prevalence of erosive esophagitis was 9.8% (n: 69). In adittion, 19.7% of the endoscopic findings required preoperative medical treatment and in 4% of the patients the surgical decision was determined by the endoscopic finding.

. Given the high relationship between obesity and diseases of the upper digestive tract, and the interference that these diseases can have in the postoperative evolution of a bariatric patient, we consider that upper gastrointestinal endoscopy should be routinely included in the preparation of the patient who is a candidate for bariatric surgery.