Impact of Gastropexy/Omentopexy on Gastrointestinal Symptoms after Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) has become a single-step operation for the management of severe obesity. A statistically significant number of participants who undergo this procedure experience nausea, vomiting, and reflux symptoms early after the operation. The objectives of this study were to measure the positive or negative effect of gastropexy on reducing distressing postoperative LSG-related gastrointestinal symptoms. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a comparative randomized study conducted from January 2018 to January 2021. The study was carried out in the general surgery department at Menoufia University Hospital, Menoufia Faculty of Medicine in Egypt. Two hundred participants were included randomly during this trial. The participants were divided into two groups, with 100 patients in each group. Patients in group A underwent gastropexy, and patients in group B underwent LSG without gastropexy. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the groups in age or sex (p > 0.05). There was no significant difference in the length of hospital stay (p > 0.05). There was a significant difference between the two groups regarding nausea, vomiting, reflux symptoms, and the amount and frequency of antiemetics used (p < 0.001). There was also a significant difference in hospital readmissions (p < 0.05) and in clinic visits during the postoperative period. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who underwent gastropexy showed a significant reduction in antiemetic consumption and a significantly lower incidence of postoperative nausea, vomiting, gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms and gastric torsion than those who did not undergo gastropexy. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text]