Vertical gastric resection (sleeve gastrectomy) in a morbidly obese patient with past jejunoileal bypass.

Jejunoileal bypass (JIB) is a purely malabsorptive operation, which has been abandoned in the USA and Western Europe due to occasional serious complications. We are still seeing past JIB patients who have become obese again over the years, but are not suffering side-effects of the previous JIB, and are complaining of typical co-morbidities of the obesity. We present a prior JIB patient who underwent a sleeve gastrectomy in 2003 for recurrence of morbid obesity. The patient has been followed for another 4 years with regular laboratory tests, monitoring of weight loss, bone densitometry and possible complications. Selected morbidly obese patients who have undergone past JIB, can be safely treated by a restrictive procedure, sleeve gastrectomy, to accomplish successful weight loss without increasing the risk of possible serious complications.