[Gastric food bezoar as a complication of bariatric surgery. Case report and review of the literature]

Abstract

In the last few years bariatric surgery has become an excellent therapeutic alternative for the treatment of morbid obesity. Food bezoar as a cause for obstruction seems to be a very infrequent postoperative complication. It has only been published as anecdotal case reports. We describe a female patient with morbid obesity (weight, 131 kg; body mass index, 45) who underwent laparoscopic bariatric surgery (subtotal 95% gastrectomy with gastroyeyunoanastomosis in Roux-Y) obtaining a significant weight reduction (51 kg) in the next few months post surgery. She developed a food bezoar in the gastric remnant as a late complication of surgery (13 months after bariatric surgery) and presented as a gastric outlet acute obstruction with persistent vomiting and satiety. The diagnosis and treatment was performed through an upper GI endoscopy. It is important to consider this complication in patients with persisting vomiting after this kind of surgery. In the near future we will probably have a significant amount of patients operated due to morbid obesity and we may see this kind of complication more frequently.