1990 Volume 26 Issue 2 Pages 137-141
Morbidly obese patients undergoing vertical banded gastroplasty were studied preoperatively and/or postoperatively to characterize its manometric pattern. The esophageal manometry using station pullthrough technique involved 14 preoperative patients with a mean age of 28±7 years who were a obesity index of 220±32% and 14 postoperative patients with a mean age of 30±7 years who were a obesity index of 158±23%.
Preoperative lower esophageal sphincter (LES) pressure using gastric base line as O was 16.1±8.5 cmH2O and a LES length of 3.4±0.9 cm. Postoperatively, the vertical banded gastroplasty channel had a pressure of 17.7±7.1 cmH2O and a length of 8.2±1.7 cm which was higher than gastric base line. No difference was seen between preoperative LES pressure and postoperative channel pressure, however postoperative channel length was signihcantly (p<0.01) larger than preoperative LES length.
We concluded that vertical banded gastroplasty for morbid obesity created a longer high pressure zone in accordance with channel which would inhibit reflux of gastric juice.
