Oversewing and Gastropexy in Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy - Two Futile Steps of the Procedure? An Observational Case-Control Study.

PURPOSE: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is the most popular primary bariatric metabolic procedure worldwide but severe complications are still reported, and there is no ideal technique to avoid them. This study analyses the impact of oversewing (OS) and gastropexy (GP) on complication rate, early dyspeptic and late de novo GERD symptoms after LSG. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A case-control study was conducted on patients with obesity who underwent LSG. The total cohort was divided in group A (control group) - patients with no oversewing (OS) or gastropexy (GP), group B - patients with OS but no gastropexy and group C - patients with both OS and GP performed during LSG. RESULTS: We included 272 patients with obesity with a mean BMI 42.9±6.94 kg/m2, 96 patients in group A, 90 patients in group B and 86 in group C with no statistical differences between them. We had 5 cases of postoperative hemorrhage (4 in group A) and three patients who developed leaks (2 in group A and one in group B). Prolonged and severe early dyspeptic episodes and after 6 months reflux symptoms were significantly more in groups A and B (p<0.05). The operative time was longer in group B and C (p<0.05) but with no difference in procedure -related morbidity and in hospital length of stay. CONCLUSION: Adding both OS and GP to LSG reduce complications rate with no influence on procedure-related postoperative morbidity and in-hospital length of stay. GP reduces early postoperative dyspeptic and de novo GERD symptoms after LSG.

Human liver microbiota modeling strategy at the early onset of fibrosis.

BACKGROUND: Gut microbiota is involved in the development of liver diseases such as fibrosis. We and others identified that selected sets of gut bacterial DNA and bacteria translocate to tissues, notably the liver, to establish a non-infectious tissue microbiota composed of microbial DNA and a low frequency live bacteria. However, the precise set of bacterial DNA, and thereby the corresponding taxa associated with the early stages of fibrosis need to be identified. Furthermore, to overcome the impact of different group size and patient origins we adapted innovative statistical approaches. Liver samples with low liver fibrosis scores (F0, F1, F2), to study the early stages of the disease, were collected from Romania(n = 36), Austria(n = 10), Italy(n = 19), and Spain(n = 17). The 16S rRNA gene was sequenced. We considered the frequency, sparsity, unbalanced sample size between cohorts to identify taxonomic profiles and statistical differences. RESULTS: Multivariate analyses, including adapted spectral clustering with L1-penalty fair-discriminant strategies, and predicted metagenomics were used to identify that 50% of liver taxa associated with the early stage fibrosis were Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Xanthobacteriaceae and Burkholderiaceae. The Flavobacteriaceae and Xanthobacteriaceae discriminated between F0 and F1. Predicted metagenomics analysis identified that the preQ0 biosynthesis and the potential pathways involving glucoryranose and glycogen degradation were negatively associated with liver fibrosis F1-F2 vs F0. CONCLUSIONS: Without demonstrating causality, our results suggest first a role of bacterial translocation to the liver in the progression of fibrosis, notably at the earliest stages. Second, our statistical approach can identify microbial signatures and overcome issues regarding sample size differences, the impact of environment, and sets of analyses. TRIAL REGISTRATION: TirguMECCH ROLIVER Prospective Cohort for the Identification of Liver Microbiota, registration 4065/2014. Registered 01 01 2014.