I am reading Dr. Alvarez's book on the gastric sleeve. On page 19 he says:

He or she [the surgeon] can leave the Gastric Sleeve this way [staples only] or run a suture over the stapling line. Studies have shown that the risk of a leak by leaving only the staples may be as high as 6 to 7%. Running the suture over the staple line may decrease the chance of a leak to <1%.

Now, he does not refrence any studies. I have done extensive research on this surgery and I don't recall reading any journal papers regarding stapling alone vs. stapling and oversewing. Have any of you come across such studies?

Thanks.

AMG

My Doc does the sutures. I asked his assistant Fellow about it before hand, if they stitched or glued, and the guy said they both work just as well but the Center they work at does stitches. They didn't site any study though... just professional experience.

The patient coordinator for Dr. Almanza said he staples, oversews, and glues. I don't know if that's overkill or if it's safer or not. But it reassured me about leaks!

I have not personally seen any studies, but my surgeon doesn't oversew or use the adhesive stuff over the staples. He told me that there was no evidence of any less occurrence of leaks with them, so to help keep the self-pay costs down for the patient, he doesn't do it.

No difference in leaks whether you oversew or not. Good studies to show that. What it can help is decreasing the risk of bleeding. Oversewing or using the SeamGuard strips on the stapling devices have shown to decrease bleeding but haven't changed the leak rate a bit. I'm with Dr. Pleatman on this one. Your surgeon should do what they are most comfortable with and have had the best results with, IMHO.

I know that Dr. Aceves oversews.