Anyone develop bile reflux shortly after surgery?

Over the years on these forums, it's not something that we see a lot of, though it does pop up occasionally (as it does in the non-WLS "normal" population.)

What procedure did you have? It is something of a predisposition with the RNY pouch style of procedures, as the pyloric valve has been taken out of the main flow and the stomach access has been moved downstream of the bile ducts, but from what I have seen it is more common amongst patients who have had the procedure for non-WLS reasons (gastroperesis or gastric cancer typically) and the surgeons keep the limbs short to minimize weight loss; usually if the limbs are of typical weight loss length it doesn't present a problem. The mini bypass has historically been associated with bile reflux problems, though there are claims that they have developed techniques to minimize it for that as well.

I had VSG. The episode I had was similar to GERD and for now my surgeon's office is treating it as such, except I was coughing up bile. I hadn't realized but within hours of my surgery I had coughed it up also, but assumed it was something related to the surgery. The taste is unmistakable and this time I had visual confirmation. I plan on discussing it at length at my post op on Monday. Other than this incident I feel incredible.

Curious. I have seen a couple of sleevers over the years have that problem, but doe seem to be unusual, particularly compared to acid reflux (isn't it nice to be "special"?) but it doesn't seem to be any more prevalent with us than with the general population. It seems that most anyone can be subject to it on an occasional basis; it's the chronic condition that is problematic, so I guess that you continue to monitor things and see how it goes. There are tests that they can do to determine if this is a chronic thing and if something needs to be done, so keep on them about it if it continues to be a bother.

There was one gal a few years ago whos surgeon revised her to an RNY to treat it, which seemed odd given its' predisposition toward it, but it seemed to work (at least initially - like most, she dropped off the forums after a few months) so presumably the surgeon did everything in the RNY toolkit to avoid it. The better approach if things are that bad is to revise it to a DS as that is as good of a cure as one can find (it puts the stomach and bile ducts at near opposite ends of the GI tract, so it's virtually impossible for the two to mix), but most bariatric surgeons don't know how to do that one. Hopefully, you don't need to go so far as a surgical solution.

Good luck!

On 1/28/2021 at 1:39 PM, KellyMarie8288 said:

I had VSG. The episode I had was similar to GERD and for now my surgeon's office is treating it as such, except I was coughing up bile. I hadn't realized but within hours of my surgery I had coughed it up also, but assumed it was something related to the surgery. The taste is unmistakable and this time I had visual confirmation. I plan on discussing it at length at my post op on Monday. Other than this incident I feel incredible.

I’m happy you posted this I just had RNY and have been having the same issues. Hopefully this is something that will go away. I would love to keep my liquids down and not taste horrible burps all the time!