Evaluation of Patient Reported Gastroesophageal Reflux Severity at Baseline and at 1-year After Bariatric Surgery

Objective: To assess patient-reported gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) severity before and after SG and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). Summary of Background Data: Development of new-onset or worsening GERD symptoms after bariatric surgery varies by procedure, but there is a lack of patient-reported data to help guide decision-making. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing bariatric surgery in a statewide quality collaborative between 2013 and 2017. We used a validated GERD survey with symptom scores ranging from 0 (no symptoms) to 5 (severe daily symptoms) and included patients who completed surveys both at baseline and 1-year after surgery (n = 10,451). We compared the rates of improved and worsened GERD symptoms after SG and RYGB. Results: Within our study cohort, 8680 (83%) underwent SG and 1771 (17%) underwent RYGB. Mean baseline score for all patients was 0.94. Patients undergoing SG experienced similar improvement in GERD symptoms when compared to RYGB (30.4% vs 30.8%, P = 0.7015). However, SG patients also reported higher rates of worsening symptoms (17.8% vs 7.5%, P < 0.0001) even though they were more likely to undergo concurrent hiatal hernia repair (35.1% vs 20.0%, P<0.0001). More than half of patients (53.5%) did not report a change in their score. Conclusions: Although SG patients reported higher rates of worsening GERD symptoms when compared to RYGB, the majority of patients (>80%) in this study experienced improvement or no change in GERD regardless of procedure. Using clinically relevant patient-reported outcomes can help guide decisions about procedure choice in bariatric surgery for patients with GERD.

Automated summary

This study aimed to assess patient-reported GERD severity before and after SG and RYGB surgeries. The study found that although some SG patients experienced worsened symptoms after surgery, the majority of patients showed improvement or no change in GERD symptoms. Therefore, using patient-reported outcomes can help guide the choice of procedure in bariatric surgery for GERD patients.