Endoscopic Internal Drainage Coupled to Prompt External Drainage Mobilization Is an Effective Approach for the Treatment of Complicated Cases of Sleeve Gastrectomy.

INTRODUCTION: Despite advances in treating gastric staple line leaks after bariatric surgical procedures, chronic leaks have been reported. Failure of their treatment frequently leads to radical surgery. We aimed to describe a strategy for preventing occurrence of chronic gastric leaks after complicated sleeve gastrectomy in patients necessitating relaparoscopy and external drainage as a first step of gastric leak management.

METHODS: Data from 14 consecutive patients admitted for gastric leak after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy were prospectively collected and retrospectively analyzed. Patients included underwent relaparoscopy and external drainage as first step of management.

RESULTS: Median time to gastric leak detection was 4 days. Emergency relaparoscopy allowed peritoneal lavage and external drainage placement next to the leak. Median time between surgery and endoscopic internal drainage (EID) was 4 days. Progressive external drainage mobilization started after 2 days. Control endoscopy was performed every 4 weeks until healing. A median interval of 112 days was necessary before healing in 13 patients. Thirteen patients (92.8%) had no gastric leak recurrence at 1 year. In one patient, EID was considerably delayed and external drainage mobilization prolonged, leading to chronic gastric leak and total gastrectomy after 18 months.

CONCLUSION: This study reports for the first time a well-standardized protocol of early EID after relaparoscopy coupled to rapid external drainage removal for effectively treating complicated cases of sleeve gastrectomy. Bariatric surgeons should be aware of such therapeutic strategies and include them in their arsenal against postoperative gastric staple line leaks in severely obese patients.