Factibility of open vertical gastrectomy in Brazil´s Public Health System.

ABSTRACT Objective: to analyse clinical and epidemiological characteristics, postoperative complications, and weight loss in patients undergoing conventional vertical gastrectomy in a hospital under Brazil’s Public Health System (SUS). Methods: cross-sectional longitudinal retrospective study based on data collection from medical records for variable analysis in patients undergoing open vertical gastrectomy in SUS, from July 2013 to January 2017. Results: we analysed 296 patients operated on during the study period, of which 54% were male. The average age was of 39.9 years ±11.4; the average body mass index (BMI) was of 43.5kg/m² in the preoperative period and of 30.3kg/m² in the postoperative period; and the excess weight loss was of 73.6% (83.24% had an excess weight loss greater than 50%). Preoperative BMI was higher in the group with weight loss below 50%. We observed a 5.4% rate of early complications requiring hospitalization and a 1% mortality rate. Conclusion: open vertical gastrectomy is a safe and effective weight loss technique, which can be more performed in SUS. Among the variables evaluated in our work, the previous BMI was the only one related to the postoperative success.