Histopathological findings in laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy specimens: Are pathological examinations necessary?

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of gastric histopathological findings in patients who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) in our hospital and to add more data to the published literature on the characteristics of the resected LSG samples. Material and Methods: The pathology reports of the patients were retrospectively analyzed to identify all patients with consecutive morbidly obesity who underwent LSG from January 2015 to December 2019. All patients underwent gastroscopy in the preoperative period. Results: The study analyzed 800 patient reports. No specific pathological finding was observed in 230/800 (28.75%) of the patients, which was reported as normal. Specific pathological findings were present in 570 (71.25%) patients. Cases of chronic inactive gastritis (400 patients [50%] ), chronic active gastritis (134 patients [16.7%] ), intestinal metaplasia (2 patients [0.2%] ), low-grade dysplasia (1 patient [0.12%] ), stromal tumor (7 patients [0.87%] ), Neuroendocrine (NE) cell hyperplasia (7 patients [0.87%] ), fundic gland polyps (3 patients [0.37%] ), granulomatous gastritis (1 patient [0.12%] ), acute gastritis (1 patient [0.12%] ) and ectopic pancreas (1 patient [0.12%] ) were recorded. Conclusion: Surgeons should be aware of the high unexpected histopathological prevalence in bariatric patients. Although our study did not find any malignant pathological result, we believe that routine postoperative pathological examination and preoperative endoscopy are necessary for medicolegal reasons.