The short- to mid-term symptom prevalence of dumping syndrome after primary gastric-bypass surgery and its impact on health-related quality of life

Background: Early and late dumping are complications of gastric bypass surgery. Early dumping occurs within an hour after eating, when the emptying of food into the small intestine triggers rapid fluid shifts into the intestinal lumen and the release of gastrointestinal hormones, resulting in gastrointestinal and vasomotor symptoms. Late dumping occurs between 1 and 3 hours after carbohydrate ingestion and is caused by an exaggerated insulin release, resulting in hypoglycemia. Almost no data are currently available on the prevalence of early and late dumping or their impact on health-related quality of life (QoL). Objectives: To study the prevalence of early and late dumping in a large population of patients having undergone a primary Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and its effect on QoL. Setting: Cross-sectional study at a single bariatric department in the Medical Center Leeuwarden, The Netherlands between 2008 and 2011. Methods: In 2013, this descriptive cohort study approached by email or post all patients who underwent a primary RYGB in the setting between 2008 and 2011 in one hospital. These patients were asked to fill in standardized questionnaires measuring their QoL (RAND-36), anxiety and depression (HADS), fatigue (MFI-20) and any disease specific indicators of early and late dumping syndrome. Results: The questionnaire was completed and returned by 351 of 613 patients (57.1%) and 121 nonobese volunteers. Participants were mostly female (80%), aged 42 (40-54 years), with an excess weight loss of 76.8% [IQR 61-95] after RYGB surgery 2.3 [IQR 1.6-3.4] years earlier. Self-reported complaints of moderate to severe intensity suggestive of early and late dumping were present in 18.8% and 11.7% of patients, respectively. Patients with early and late dumping demonstrated significantly lower scores on the RAND-36 and HADS compared with patients without dumping. No differences were seen in the MFI-20 scores between patients with or without early and late dumping. Conclusion: In this descriptive cohort, self-reported complaints suggestive of early and late dumping of moderate-to-severe intensity were, respectively, 18.8% and 11.7% in a cohort after primary gastric bypass surgery. These complaints were associated with markedly reduced health related QoL

Ergonomic assessment of the French and American position for laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the MIS Suite

Cholecystectomy was one of the first surgical procedures to be performed with laparoscopy in the 1980s. Currently, two operation setups generally are used to perform a laparoscopic cholecystectomy: the French and the American position. In the French position, the patient lies in the lithotomy position, whereas in the American position, the patient lies supine with the left arm in abduction. To find an ergonomic difference between the two operation setups the movements of the surgeon's vertebral column were analyzed in a crossover study. The posture of the surgeon's vertebral column was recorded intraoperatively using an electromagnetic motion-tracking system with three sensors attached to the head and to the trunk at the levels of Th1 and S1. A three-dimensional posture analysis of the cervical and thoracolumbar spine was performed to evaluate four surgeons removing a gallbladder in the French and American position. The body angles assessed were flexion/extension of the cervical and thoracolumbar spine, axial rotation of the cervical and thoracolumbar spine, lateroflexion of the cervical and thoracolumbar spine, and the orientation of the head in the sagittal plane. For each body angle, the mean, the percentage of operation time within an ergonomic acceptable range, and the relative frequencies were calculated and compared. No statistical difference was observed in the mean body angles or in the percentages of operation time within an acceptable range between the French and the American position. The relative frequencies of the body angles might indicate a trend toward slight thoracolumbar flexion in the French position. In a modern dedicated minimally invasive surgery suite, the body posture of the neck and trunk and the orientation of the head did not differ significantly between the French and American position

Influence of bariatric surgery on the use of medication

PURPOSE: Bariatric surgery can influence the prevalence and incidence of comorbidities, as well as the pharmacokinetics of drugs. This might lead to changes in the use of drugs. This study aimed to assess the influence of bariatric surgery on the use of medication in patients before and after surgery, focusing on type, number of medications, and daily dosage.METHODS: In a retrospective and prospective observational study, drug dispensing data from pharmacies of patients undergoing their first bariatric surgery between January 2008 and September 2011 was collected. Dispensing data from 1 month before until 12 months after surgery was analyzed. Drugs were classified according to the WHO-ATC classification system. Dosages of drugs were compared using defined daily dose (DDD).RESULTS: Among 450 patients, 12 months after surgery, the mean number of drugs per patient for antidiabetics, drugs acting on the cardiovascular system, anti-inflammatory and antirheumatic drugs, and drugs for obstructed airway diseases decreased by, respectively, 71.3 % (95 % CI 57.2 to 85.4), 34.5 % (95 % CI 28.2 to 43.0), 45.5 % (95 % CI 13.3 to 72.6), and 33.1 % (95 % CI 15.3 to 53.2). Patients used lower median DDD of oral antidiabetics, beta-blocking agents, and lipid-modifying drugs.CONCLUSIONS: For some major drug classes 12 months after bariatric surgery, the use of drugs decreases in terms of mean number per patient. A reduction in dose intensity was observed for oral antidiabetics, beta-blocking agents, and lipid-modifying drugs. Dispensing data from pharmacies may provide detailed information on the use of medications by patients after bariatric surgery.</p

Functional Imaging in Hyperinsulinemic Hypoglycemia after Gastric Bypass Surgery for Morbid Obesity

Context: Hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) has been increasingly reported. It is induced by beta-cell hyperplasia often referred to as nesidioblastosis. Positron emission tomography (PET) with [11C]-5-hydroxytryptophan (C-11-HTP) and 6-[18F]fluoro-3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine (F-18-DOPA) has been successfully applied to image neuroendocrine tumors. No data are available of the usefulness of these functional imaging techniques in post-RYGB in this new endocrine disorder, neither for diagnostic purposes nor for follow-up. Objective: We present a patient with post-RYGB hypoglycemia who underwent C-11-HTP and F-18-DOPA PET scintigraphy for diagnostic purposes and to evaluate the effect of additional laparoscopic adjustable banding of the pouch as a surgical therapy for this disorder. Patient: We describe a woman with biochemically confirmed post-RYGB hypoglycemia who showed diffuse uptake of the C-11-HTP and F-18-DOPA tracers in the entire pancreas. After failure of dietary and medical treatment options, she underwent a laparoscopic adjustable banding for pouch dilatation. Subjective improvement was noted, which coincided with decreased uptake of F-18-DOPA and C-11-HTP in the head of the pancreas. Conclusions: Functional imaging by F-18-DOPA- and C-11-HTP-PET can accurately visualize diffuse endocrine pancreatic activity in post-gastric bypass hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia. Both C-11-HTP- and F-18-DOPA-PET imaging appear to have a similar diagnostic performance in the presented case, and uptake of both tracers potentially relates to disease activity after surgical intervention. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 97: E963-E967, 2012

The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset.

Here we provide the 'Global Spectrum of Plant Form and Function Dataset', containing species mean values for six vascular plant traits. Together, these traits -plant height, stem specific density, leaf area, leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen content per dry mass, and diaspore (seed or spore) mass - define the primary axes of variation in plant form and function. The dataset is based on ca. 1 million trait records received via the TRY database (representing ca. 2,500 original publications) and additional unpublished data. It provides 92,159 species mean values for the six traits, covering 46,047 species. The data are complemented by higher-level taxonomic classification and six categorical traits (woodiness, growth form, succulence, adaptation to terrestrial or aquatic habitats, nutrition type and leaf type). Data quality management is based on a probabilistic approach combined with comprehensive validation against expert knowledge and external information. Intense data acquisition and thorough quality control produced the largest and, to our knowledge, most accurate compilation of empirically observed vascular plant species mean traits to date