Background: Morbid obesity has become a big health problem due to its multiple co-morbidities. Bariatric surgery proved to be an effective way for management of morbid obesity and its co-morbidities. Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) evolved as a single-stage for treatment of morbid obesity.
Objective: To compare inversion and non-inversion of staple line in laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) as regard post-operative complications.
Patient and Methods: This comparative prospective study was conducted on 40 morbidly obese patients operated upon for LSG 20 without inversion of staple line, and 20 with inversion of staple line, and are followed up afterwards to evaluate postoperative complications rate. Patients were followed up at regular intervals on the first week postoperatively, and then at 1, 3, 6, 12 months in General Surgery Department, Sayed Galal University Hospital, and Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital during the period between June 2019 and January 2021.
Results: There was no statistically significant difference between group A (LSG without inversion of staple line) and group B (LSG with inversion of staple line) in age (range 23 to 60 years VS 19 to 55 years), mean BMI (49.49 VS 45.06), co morbidities, time of surgery (108 min VS 124 min) and complications which included bleeding, infection, leakage and thromboembolism.
Conclusion: Laparoscopic SG was an effective treatment for morbid obesity with accepted range of complications. Reinforcement of staple line has no significant impact on percentage of suture line bleeding , leakage , operative time or hospital stay. This technique can be restricted to special individual cases depending on the operative findings. However, more intense practice and wide range of cases are required for more precise assessment.