Conversion of sleeve gastrectomy to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease: results of a multicenter study

Background: The main side effect of long-term laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy is the onset of severe gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of gastric bypass conversion in controlling postsleeve GERD. Setting: University Hospital and Private Hospital, France and Private Hospital, Italy. Methods: This retrospective multicenter study included patients who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and suffered from postoperative GERD, who did not respond to medical treatment and were converted to laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. The study involved 2 French university hospitals, 4 French private centers, and an Italian public hospital. Results: A total of 80 patients were reviewed. Treatment of a hiatal hernia was performed during laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in 3 patients, while 19 patients were operated for hiatal hernia during conversion to bypass (P = .0004). Six months after surgery, 23 of 80 patients maintained reflux symptomatology with a daily frequency, for which continued proton pump inhibitor treatment was required. The persistence of GERD was significantly more frequent among patients with previous gastric banding (n = 19) compared with patients with no history of gastric banding (n = 4, P = .02). In other words, the likelihood of having poor clinical success from conversion of the sleeve to bypass because of intractable GERD was 3 times higher if the patient had a history of gastric banding (relative risk = 2.89, odds ratio = 3.69). Conclusion: The results of this study show that, despite the conversion, the symptomatology of GERD does not always disappear, especially in patients with previous gastric banding. (C) 2020 American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.