Background: Obesity is a real worldwide problem. About one billion people are suffering from obesity all over the world. Two-thirds of the
communities are adults, then the remaining one-third are children and adolescents. Obese patients especially those with central obesity are
showing an incidence of 20–50% for preexisting gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Objectives: This paper is trying to define the relationship between these items in obese patients in our community through clinical and
endoscopic evaluation.
Patients and methods: This prospective study involved 61 patients who were scheduled for bariatric procedures. All patients were invited to
answer a GERD questionnaire and to do upper GI endoscopy twice: once preoperative and second time 1 year postoperatively. Patients were
divided into three groups regarding preexisting GERD and operative procedure.
Results: Group A patients showed significant worsening of GERD scores, endoscopic esophagitis grade, and PPI dependency. Group B patients
showed significant improvement in GERD scores without improvement in esophagitis grade. Group C patients showed multifactorial significant
improvement.
Conclusion: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) operation seems to be truly a refluxogenic procedure, while Roux-En-Y gastric bypass
(RYGB) should be considered as better alternatives to avoid postoperative worsening of GERD and degree of esophagitis. These results need
confirmation by studies with a bigger number of patients.