Robot-assisted gastroesophageal surgery: usefulness and limitations.

Robot-assisted surgery overcomes some of the limitations of traditional laparoscopic surgery. We present our experience and lessons learned in two surgical units dedicated to gastro-esophageal surgery. From June 2009 to January 2013, we performed 130 robot-assisted gastroesophageal procedures, including Nissen fundoplication (29), paraesophageal hernia repair (18), redo for failed antireflux surgery (11), esophagectomy (19), subtotal (5) or wedge (4) gastrectomy, Heller myotomy for achalasia (22), gastric bypass for morbid obesity (12), thoracoscopic leiomyomectomy (4), Morgagni hernia repair (3), lower-third esophageal diverticulectomy (1) and two diagnostic procedures.

Two-year changes in generic and obesity-specific quality of life after gastric bypass.

The study objectives were to assess 2-year changes in health-related quality of life (HRQL) after gastric bypass in patients with severe obesity and to analyze HRQL improvements in relation to weight loss after bariatric surgery. This was a prospective intervention study with consecutive patients referred to two bariatric surgical units in the Basque Country. We used both generic (Short Form Health Survey, SF-36 and EuroQol, EQ-5D), and specific questionnaires (Moorehead-Ardelt, MA II and Obesity-related Problems Scale, OP).

Short- and mid-term outcomes of sleeve gastrectomy for morbid obesity: the experience of the Spanish National Registry.

Background: Reports on laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) communicate very good short-term results on very high-risk morbid obese patients. However, mid- and long-term results are still unknown. A National Registry has been created in Spain to achieve information on the outcomes of this bariatric procedure.