Post-operative Complications in a Series of Gastric Bypass Patients

In order to evaluate the short- and long-term complications of obesity surgery, a review was done on 452 cases of morbidly obese patients who met the basic guidelines for obesity surgery and were operated upon; gastric bypass was performed in all of them. There were seven major complications: one myocardial infarction, two pulmonary embolisms, two gastric fistulas, one sepsis from bowel infection and one acute thrombocytopenia purpura. Five of the patients died. It is important to note, in those patients with abdominal complications, the absence of classical signs and symptoms of peritonitis, and the need to act immediately in order to solve the post-operative problem. As in other series, minor complications were also present: subcutaneous infection in 18 cases, hernia in four, peptic syndrome in three, mild anemia in 28 and hypovitaminosis A and B in 58; all received medical treatment without problem. It is concluded that obesity surgery, like all major surgery in high-risk patients, may have complications, and therefore it is necessary to recognize them in order to prevent them, and if they emerge, diagnose and treat properly.