Objective:

To establish the postoperative morbidity and mortality of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

Method:

retrospective, descriptive, longitudinal study. The sample was made up of patients undergoing laparoscopic vertical gastrectomy and laparoscopic gastric bypass in the Bariatric Surgery unit of the University Hospital of Caracas, Venezuela, with subsequent follow-up by this unit.

Results:

The sample consisted of 153 patients, of which 85.6% (131) underwent laparoscopic gastric bypass and 14.4% (22) underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. 17.6% were male, 82.4% were female; The average weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and surgical time were 126.9 kg, 1.6 m, 47.1 kg/m2 and 131.7 minutes, for gastric bypass, respectively, when compared with the group of patients undergoing laparoscopic vertical gastrectomy, statistically significant differences were found in weight and BMI (p<0.001). The most common comorbidity was high blood pressure (29.4%), followed by insulin resistance (27.5%). No medical complications were found in the series of patients studied. Two patients with gastric bypass had gastrojejunostomy leak, without a statistically significant difference (p = 0.83). There was no postoperative mortality in any group.

Conclusion:

Gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy are safe procedures, with laparoscopic vertical gastrectomy being the procedure with the least tendency to present postoperative complications.