Image Guide Percutaneous Abdominal Interventions for Leaks Following Sleeve Gastrectomy

Obesity is a growing problem all over the world, especially in the United States, Europe, and Australia (Mokdad et al., JAMA. 286: 1195–1200, 2001). Currently, bariatric surgery offers the only effective long-term weight loss therapy for morbidly obese patients. Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is the most common procedure performed worldwide for the treatment of obesity. Obesity surgery (Buchwald et al., JAMA. 292: 1724–1737, 2004) is a safe procedure with very low rate of complications, but when complications happen, it is a big issue. Complications that can be observed after sleeve gastrectomy are anastomotic or staple line leaks, abdominal abscess, gastrointestinal bleeding, intestinal obstruction, and anastomotic strictures.