Functional Abdominal Pain Syndrome in Morbidly Obese Patients Following Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass Surgery

BACKGROUND: Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGBP) is one of the most common bariatric surgeries, which is being performed using various techniques like gastrojejunostomy by hand swen, linear or circular stapler. Abdominal pain is a common complaint following laparoscopic gastric bypass procedure (LGBP), which has different aetiologies, such as overeating, adhesion, internal herniation, bile reflux and many more. In this study LGBP was performed in an ante-colic ante-gastric pattern in a double loop manner and the prevalence and distribution of pain in morbidly obese patients undergoing LGBP was assessed. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to analyze the distribution and frequency of post LGBP pain in morbidly obese patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study was performed on 190 morbidly obese patients referred to Hazrat Rasoul Hospital in Tehran. After LGBP, pain was measured in the following intervals: 24 hours, one week and one month after the operation. Before the operation onset, 2 mg Keflin and 5000 IU subcutaneous heparin were administered as prophylaxis. LGBP was performed using five ports including: one 11 mm port was placed 15-20 cm far from the xiphoid, one 12-mm port in mid-clavicular line at the level of camera port, one 5-mm port in subcostal area in ante-axillary region in the left, another 5-mm port in the right mid-clavicular area and a 5-mm port in sub-xyphoid. All operations were done by the same team. Staple was used for all anastomoses and hand sewn technique to close the staple insertion site. The mesenteric defect was left open and no effort was made to repair it. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that 99.94 % of the patients had complains of pain in the first 24 hours of post operation, about 60% after one week and 29.5 % still had pain after one month. In addition, left upper quadrant (LUQ) was found to be the most prevalent site for the pain in 53.7% of the patients in the first 24 hours, 59.6% after one week and 16.8% after one month (except for obscure pain) with a significance of < 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the authors analyzed the location and disturbance level of pain after LGBP, which could serve as a cornerstone for further researches. The authors suggest that long-term follow-up (for more than a year after operation) should be considered in future studies and also the relationship between the drainage site and pain should be investigated.