Small Bowel Limb Lengths and Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass: a Systematic Review

Abstract

There is currently no consensus on the combined length of small bowel that should be bypassed as biliopancreatic or alimentary limb for optimum results with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. A number of different limb lengths exist, and there is significant variation in practice amongst surgeons. Inevitably, this means that some patients have too much small bowel bypassed and end up with malnutrition and others end up with a less effective operation. Lack of standardisation poses further problems with interpretation and comparison of scientific literature. This systematic review concludes that a range of 100-200 cm for combined length of biliopancreatic or alimentary limb gives optimum results with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in most patients.

Keywords: Alimentary limb; Bariatric surgery; Biliopancreatic limb; Gastric bypass; Obesity; Roux limb; Roux-en-Y gastric bypass; Small bowel length; Small bowel limb length.