WEIGHT LOSS AND THE LENGTH OF THE SMALL INTESTINE IN THE FOBI-CAPELLA SURGERY: IS THERE A RELATIONSHIP?

BACKGROUND:

Factors related to weight loss in obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery have always been exhaustively studied in an attempt to propose the best surgical technique with greater weight loss and long-term resolution of comorbidities. Patients present anatomical variations regarding the length of the small intestine. Some studies demonstrate weight changes in patients with different lengths of the intestinal loops in the Roux-en-Y bypass technique. The present work carried out a study on the influence of body mass index, weight loss, and common loop length on long-term surgical outcomes.

METHODS:

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study by retrospective analysis of 112 medical records of patients undergoing open bariatric surgery using the gastric bypass technique at University Hospital - UFPR. The data were correlated in statistical programs for this purpose.

RESULTS:

Out of 112 patients, 83.03% were women, with mean age of 41.52 years. The mean length of the total small bowel of the patients was 5.02 m. There was a directly proportional relationship between the length of the small intestine and weight loss (p=0.0428).

CONCLUSION:

There is a wide range of variables related to weight loss in patients undergoing bariatric surgery, such as the technique used, the length of the loops in the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, and the routine of nutritional and physical monitoring of the patient. It is important to assess the technical details of the surgical procedure and to verify the weight loss by evaluating integrally the patient and other variables.