Background: Obesity is a real worldwide problem. About one billion people are suffering from obesity all over the world. Two-thirds of the communities are adults, then the remaining one-third are children and adolescents. Obese patients especially those with central obesity are showing an incidence of 20–50% for preexisting gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Objectives: This paper is trying to define the relationship between these items in obese patients in our community through clinical and endoscopic evaluation. Patients and methods: This prospective study involved 61 patients who were scheduled for bariatric procedures. All patients were invited to answer a GERD questionnaire and to do upper GI endoscopy twice: once preoperative and second time 1 year postoperatively. Patients were divided into three groups regarding preexisting GERD and operative procedure. Results: Group A patients showed significant worsening of GERD scores, endoscopic esophagitis grade, and PPI dependency. Group B patients showed significant improvement in GERD scores without improvement in esophagitis grade. Group C patients showed multifactorial significant improvement. Conclusion: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) operation seems to be truly a refluxogenic procedure, while Roux-En-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) should be considered as better alternatives to avoid postoperative worsening of GERD and degree of esophagitis. These results need
confirmation by studies with a bigger number of patients. |
