Ahmed A ElGeidie, and Nabil Gad ElHak
Purposes: Laparoscopic gastric plication (LGP) is a new restrictive bariatric procedure that emerged to avoid the problems and to reduce the cost of more popular restrictive procedures particularly laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. In this study we present the surgical technique and initial short-term outcome of LGP for treating morbidly obese Egyptian patients.
Materials and methods: Data of all patients who underwent LGP at the Gastroenterology Surgical Center, Mansoura University, Egypt between March 2010 and November 2012 was retrospectively reviewed. Early cases were done by the original two-bite technique while later cases were plicated using four-bite stitches.
Results: Data of 47 patients (9 males and 38 females) who had completed their 3- and 6-month postoperative follow-up visits were analyzed. The mean age was 36.8 years. Mean follow-up was 8.6 months. Mean preoperative weight was 109.4 kg with a mean BMI of 40.7 kg/m2. All the operations were completed laparoscopically. Mean operative time was 85 min. Mean hospital stay was 1.8 days. At 3 months following LGP, mean weight loss was 24.6 kg, and at 6 months 36.4 kg. The mean %EWL was 41.4 and 50.5 at 3 and 6 months respectively. Two out of 58 patients (3.4%) developed prolonged nausea, vomiting and sialorrhea for 5 and 7 days but subsided subsequently with medications. No patient required reoperation or readmission.
Conclusions: LGP is a safe, feasible and effective weight reducing surgery that suits most of our Egyptian patients as an alternative restrictive procedure.