Is Sleeve Gastrectomy Always an Absolute Contraindication in Patients with Barrett’s?

The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma is not rising at the same rate as severe obesity, and incidence-based mortality is marginally going down since 2000. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is now the preferred operation for weight loss in several countries including the USA. Recent objective studies of reflux before and 2 years after LSG show improvement by GERD Symptom Assessment Scale score, DeMeester score, total acid exposure, as well as unchanged lower esophageal sphincter pressure measurements. Therefore, sleeve gastrectomy improves symptoms and reduces reflux in most morbidly obese patients with preoperative reflux. At the last LSG consensus conference, 94.5 % of experts mentioned Barrett’s esophagus to be a major contraindication for the performance of LSG, a change from 2011 (81 %). But the actual incidence of Barrett’s is only 1 % in the severely obese. Therefore, 99 % of patients should be able to get a LSG. Further, after 25 years of duodenal switch operations (which includes a sleeve gastrectomy, there are still no reports of esophageal adenocarcinoma. Hence, LSG is not a contraindication in GERD patients without Barrett’s.