Radiology of patients with vertical banded gastroplasty.

Background: The authors evaluated the usefulness of routine traditional radiology in the management of patients submitted to VBG.

Methods: Radiological findings in 65 subjects who had undergone VBG were evaluated. Post-surgical clinical and radiological examinations were performed 3 days, 1, 4 and 12 months after surgery. Upper GI symptoms, gastroesophageal imaging and 80% solid meal pouch emptying time were recorded.

Results: The routine postoperative study, in the absence of clinical symptoms, showed no unsuspected complication in any patient, both in the early and in the late postoperative period. There was no significant correlation at 4 and 12 months between emptying time and duration of satiation, emptying time and percent excess weight loss (%EWL), and duration of satiation and %EWL.

Conclusions: Traditional radiological studies can be safely omitted from both the immediate postoperative period and from the long-term follow-up in asymptomatic VBG patients. The studies were not helpful in understanding functional changes leading to weight loss after VBG.