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Background Bariatric surgery can influence the presentation, diagnosis, and management of gastrointestinal cancers. Oesophago-Gastric (OG) malignancies in patients who have had a prior bariatric procedure have not been fully characterised. Objective To characterise OG malignancies after bariatric procedures. Setting University Hospital, United Kingdom. Methods We performed a retrospective, multi-centre observational study of patients with OG malignancies after bariatric surgery to characterise this condition. Results This study includes 170 patients from 75 centres in 25 countries who underwent bariatric procedures between 1985 and 2020. At the time of the bariatric procedure, the mean age was 50.2 ± 10 years and the mean weight 128.8 ± 28.9 kg. Females comprised 57.3% (n=98) of the population. Most (n=64) patients underwent a Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) followed by Adjustable Gastric Band (AGB) (n = 46) and Sleeve Gastrectomy (SG) (n = 43). Time to cancer diagnosis after bariatric surgery was 9.5 ± 7.4 years and mean weight at diagnosis was 87.4 ± 21.9 kg. The time lag was 5.9 ± 4.1 years after SG compared to 9.4 ± 7.1 years after RYGB and 10.5 ± 5.7 years after AGB. One-third of patients presented with metastatic disease. The majority of tumours were adenocarcinoma (82.9%). Approximately 1 in 5 patients underwent palliative treatment from the outset. Time from diagnosis to mortality was under one year for most patients who died over the intervening period. Conclusions The OGMOS (Oesophago-Gastric Malignancies after Obesity/ Bariatric Surgery) study presents the largest series to date of patients developing OG malignancies after bariatric surgery and attempts to characterise this condition.

Funding: This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation (grant code: FS/20/3/34956). Obesity enhances the risk of type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and inflammatory conditions and often leads to metal dyshomeostasis, which contributes to the negative health aspects associated with the disease. In severe cases, bariatric surgery can be recommended to achieve sustained weight loss and improvement in health. Here, magnesium, zinc, copper and selenium concentrations were examined in 24 obese patients (7 males; 17 females) before and 9 months after undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. All patients lost weight over this period, with the mean BMI reducing from 51.2±7.1 kg/m2 to 37.2±5.5 kg/m2. Moreover, whole-blood glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), as a marker of average glycaemia, was also measured and a correlative analysis of this parameter with metal concentrations performed. Significant alterations in the plasma concentrations of magnesium, zinc (both increased by 13.2% and 25.2% respectively) and copper (decreased by 7.9%) were observed over this period (plasma selenium concentration was unchanged), with BMI values correlating with plasma magnesium (p=0.004) and zinc (p=0.022) concentrations. At 9 months post-surgery, an increase in mean zinc/copper ratio was observed (0.86±0.29 compared to 0.63±0.14 pre-surgery). Comparison of whole-blood HbA1c concentrations pre- and post-surgery revealed a reduction from 6.50±1.28% pre-surgery to 5.51±0.49% post-surgery. Differences in plasma HbA1c and magnesium at either pre- and post-surgery correlated significantly, as did HbA1c and magnesium levels when pre- and post-surgery values were analysed together. Collectively, this work reveals that bariatric surgery, in conjunction with lifestyle/dietary changes, lead to improvements in the nutritional status of magnesium, zinc and copper. Furthermore, the observed improvements in magnesium and zinc were associated with weight loss and in the case of magnesium, to better glycaemic control. Publisher PDF

Obesity has become an increasingly important health problem over the past 30 years. Presently around a quarter of the UK adult population are obese and this figure is set to increase further in the coming decades. The health consequences of obesity on multiple body systems have been well established as has the financial cost of the condition to both the individuals affected as well as to society as a whole. Bariatric surgery has been shown to be the only long term effective solution in terms of sustained weight loss and comorbidity resolution. The commonest bariatric procedure in the UK is the Roux-en-y gastric bypass which consistently results in the loss of 70%-80% of excess bodyweight. Results however are variable and in order to optimise resource allocation and avoid exposing patients unlikely to benefit from surgery to its inherent risks, much research has been done to try to identify those patients most likely to obtain a good result. The only factor which has been subjected to meta-analysis is that of preoperative weight loss which shows a positive association with postoperative weight loss following bypass surgery. Although the remaining data are not based on level 1 evidence those other preoperatively identifiable factors which are associated with an improved outcome include Caucasian or Hispanic ethnicity, higher educational status, non-shift-work working patterns, female gender and divorced or single marital status. Similarly increased levels of preoperative physical activity and an absence of binge eating behaviour are consistent with a favourable result whereas increased age, smoking and other socioeconomic factors have not been shown to have a significant impact. Conversely diabetes mellitus seems to have a slight negative correlation with postoperative weight loss; however, a history of sexual abuse or psychiatric illness has not been shown to have a lasting influence.

Laparoscopic roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) has gained increasing popularity as the primary procedure of choice for the management of patients with morbid obesity. Despite the advances, a few patients will still develop complications and predicting these early complications in morbidly obese patients can prove to be difficult. Radiological investigations have limited diagnostic value and have associated side effects and cost. We propose that C-reactive protein (CRP) is a useful predictor for early postoperative complications. This study aims to determine the ability of CRP taken on postoperative day 1 (POD 1) and 2 to predict occurrence of complications within 30 days of surgery. This retrospective observational study selected 183 consecutive patients from the York bariatric database between 01 December 2010 and 23 March 2015. Exclusions: Patients undergoing dual procedures, conversion to open, and if no postoperative CRP measurement was performed. In total, 138 patients satisfied the inclusion criteria during the study period (median age 44 years [20–68], BMI 50.6 kg/m2 [38.3–62.5]). Fifteen (10.8 %) patients had minor complications (CD of 2) and 8 (5.6 %) had major complications (CD 3 or above). A CRP of greater than 127 mg/L on POD 2 was found to predict complications with 93 % sensitivity and 64 % specificity with diagnostic accuracy 0.82 (95 % confidence interval 0.731–0.908). In our patients, CRP on POD 2 has been shown to be a good predictor of both minor and major complications and can therefore be used to guide clinicians in making decision as to which patients may need further investigation or who can be safely discharged.

AIM: To help the surgeon in decision making when treating a patient with recurrent gallstone ileus (RGSI). METHODS: A systematic review related to RGSI was performed using the databases CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE via PubMed from May 1912 to April 2015. All languages were included and the grey literature was also searched. The abstracts were explored for relevance to the topic and full texts obtained as appropriate. A manual search was carried out by scrutinising the reference lists of all the full text articles and further articles were identified and obtained. Total of 903 articles were identified, 656 were excluded after abstract review, 247 full text articles were reviewed and 91 articles selected for final analysis. There were 113 cases of RGSI. RESULTS: There were 113 cases of RGSI reported in 91 articles. The majority of the recurrences, 62.6%, occurred within 6 wk of the index event. The male to female ratio was 1:7. The mean age was 69.6 years (SD 11.2) with a range of 38-95 years. The small bowel was the commonest site of impaction (92.2%). Treatment data was available for 104 patients. The two main operations performed were: (1) Enterolithotomy without repair of biliary fistula in 70.1% of all patients with a procedural mortality rate of 16.4% (12/73) and (2) a single stage surgery approach involving enterolithotomy with cholecystectomy and repair of the biliary enteric fistula in 16.3% with a procedural mortality of 11.7% (2/17). A subset analysis over last 25 years showed mortality from eneterolithotomy was 4.8% while single stage mortality was 22.2%. Enterolithotomy alone was the commonest operation performed for RGSI with four patients (5.4%) having a further recurrence of gallstone ileus. CONCLUSION: Enterolithotomy alone or followed by a delayed two-stage treatment approach is the preferred choice offering low mortality and reduced risk of recurrence.

Background & aim : Feeding jejunostomy is recommended to facilitate early enteral nutrition after major upper gastrointestinal surgery. We aimed to determine the benefits and risks associated with routine practice of feeding needle catheter jejunostomy (NCJ) in high-risk upper gastrointestinal surgery. Method : This is a prospective consecutive cohort study of 84 patients underwent feeding NCJ over a 3 years period in an Upper Gastrointestinal Surgical Unit. Results : Feeding NCJ was placed after two-stage oesophago-gastrectomy in 24 patients (28.6%), after gastrectomy in 29 patients (34.5%), after liver resections in 7 patients (8.3%), pancreatic resection in 6 patients (7.1%), bile duct reconstruction in 8 patients (9.5%) and other operations in 10 patients (12%). The mean (SE) estimated nutritional requirement per 24h was 1791 (31)kcal. Eighty-two patients (98%) started enteral feed on day 1 after surgery. Fifty-seven patients (68%) achieved the target nutritional requirements in 3 days. Four patients were discharged home on jejunal feed whilst only two patients required parenteral nutrition support. The rest tolerated full oral diet. There was no procedure related mortality. The morbidity related to feeding tube and feeding were 12.9% and 20%, respectively. Conclusions : Routine practice of feeding NCJ is safe. Their benefits outweigh the risks in a specialist centre.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a well-recognised complication of obesity. One of the microvascular complications of T2DM is diabetic retinopathy (DR). Bariatric surgery has been shown to effectively treat obesity and can induce remission of T2DM. It is not known what effect this improvement may have on pre-existing DR. We aimed to investigate this. A dual-centre, observer-blinded, case-control study investigated the progression of DR in patients who received Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (treatment group (TG)), compared with controls who received medical therapy (control group (CG)) for their T2DM. Retinal images were taken pre-operatively and approximately 2 years post-operatively for the TG and over a 2-year interval for the CG. Data were collected for confounding variables, including glycaemic control (HbA1c) and BMI. Forty-five patients were recruited (TG = 21, CG = 24). Groups were significantly heterogeneous. DR showed significant progression for those in the CG (p = 0.03) but not in TG (p = 0.135), no significant difference was found when adjusting for confounding variables (p = 0.480). There was a significant trend in favour of surgery in improvement of glycaemic control (p = 0.017). The trends within these pilot data may represent a real difference in the progression of DR in patients who have received surgery, compared with medical treatment alone. Due to heterogeneity of group characteristics, further work needs to be done to validate these results. Should there be a true difference, there will be potential cost savings for the National Health Service (NHS) along with a reduced burden of disease for patients.

It is well established that hypertension and obesity appear to be associated. The exact mechanism by which they are linked is unclear and remains a topic of a great deal of research. Current NICE guidelines recommend that patients with a BMI in excess of 35 kg/m(2) should be considered for bariatric surgery if they have a concomitant obesity-associated condition, of which hypertension is one. The commonest bariatric procedure in the UK is the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, which has been shown to result in long-standing remission of hypertension in up to 93% of patients. This paper summarizes the existing literature on the main theories as to how obesity leads to hypertension as well as the literature concerning the effects of gastric bypass surgery on hypertension.

Collagenous colitis is an increasingly diagnosed clinical and pathological variant of microscopic colitis, mainly affecting middle-aged and elderly women; herein we review the literature for a rare complication (colonic perforation) and the most appropriate management. EMBASE, MEDLINE and abstracts from major gastroenterological congresses were searched in addition to hand-searching of electronic journals. Ten case reports and short series were identified as relevant to this study, and full papers of all these articles were obtained. A total of 30 cases were recorded (28 female; age range 37–86 years, median 66 years). Colonic perforation was reported in 21 cases, mainly following colonoscopy (15 cases) or barium enema (4 cases). The site of colonic perforation/tears was predominantly right sided (17 cases). These cases were managed differently in different series, and none of the collagenous colitis-related colonic perforations that were treated conservatively (n = 5), or with diagnostic laparotomy but no colonic resection (n = 2), required further surgical intervention. Conservative management of collagenous colitis-related perforation seems to be an appropriate initial approach. However, diagnosis of collagenous colitis is usually retrospective in colonic perforations related to endoscopy or barium enema, i.e. when the histology results are available, and it seems difficult to provide a management plan specific to these patients in the clinical setting. Therefore general guidelines for management of all colonoscopy- and barium enema-related perforation are required. When perforation occurs in an otherwise intact colon, diagnostic laparoscopy can be considered as appropriate initial management.