Diabetes Health in The News Podcast: Gastric Bypass Surgery Leads to GI Complaints

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Patients who go through  Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery for morbid obesity frequently experience gastrointestinal complaints for up to two years after the surgery. These findings were retrieved from a cross-sectional study that compared about 250 patients who all underwent the surgery to morbidly obese individuals who did not have the surgery.

The Dutch researchers responsible for the study found that over 70% of participants had food in tolerances for up to two years following the surgery. This was compared to about 17% of patients with the same symptoms, but did not have the procedure completed. The gastric bypass group also had significantly higher instances of individual GI symptoms, including abdominal pain, constipation, dysphagia, borborygmus , and flatulence than the control group.

These findings were published in the British Journal of Surgery on December 19, 2016.