The yield, effectiveness and safety of gastroscopy in management of early postbariatric upper gastrointestinal pain.

Background: Upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are prevalent among patients after -bariatric surgeries. Gastroscopy is an important procedure to investigate symptoms. Our primary aim was to evaluate the yield, effectiveness and safety of gastroscopy procedure obtained in a 3-months period after bariatric operation for exploring upper GI symptoms origin.

Methods: Single center, retrospective study at the EMMS Nazareth Hospital from 2010 to 2018. All patients who underwent gastric-bypass (either Roux-en-Y[R-en-Y] or Mini-gastric bypass [MGB]) and who experienced early upper GI symptoms were included in the study.

Results: A total of 428 were included in the study. Among them, 154 patients (36%) underwent R-en-Y surgery and 274 (64%) underwent MGB. Baseline characteristics were similar in the two groups. The mean age in the R-en-Y group was 42.3±10.8 vs. 42.8±11.2 in the MGB group. Thirty-nine patients underwent gastroscopy, more in the R-en-Y group compared to MGB group (11.6% vs. 7.6%, P<0.005). In the MGB group, more patients had normal surgical anatomy (23.1%) vs. 12.8% in the R-en-Y group, and the prevalence of erosive esophagitis was 14.2% in the MBG group vs. 5.5% in the R-en-Y group, P<0.005. On the other hand, marginal ulcer was more frequent after R-en-Y than MGB surgery (16.6% vs. 9.5%, P<0.005). No procedural related complication was observed in both groups.

Conclusions: Upper GI symptoms in the early postbariatric surgery period are common with most endoscopic examination revealing normal postsurgical anatomy. In this setting, gastroscopy is safe, without procedural related complications.