Association of Hypercholesterolemia With Gastric Intestinal Metaplasia, Findings After Sleeve Gastrectomy Pathology Review

Background: We evaluated the relationship between comorbidities associated with obesity, body mass index (BMI), and development of intestinal metaplasia (IM) after vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG). Materials and Methods: All VSG specimens performed at an academic center between 2011 and 2018 were reviewed. All specimens underwent histopathologic assessment, while those with findings suspicious for IM underwent additional immunohistochemical work up. Baseline patient characteristics and demographic data were obtained from Iran National Obesity Surgery Database by retrospective review. Results: A total of 862 adult individuals underwent VSG during the study period and specimens were histopathologically examined. All patients had preoperative upper endoscopy. The most common histopathologic diagnosis was miscellaneous findings (57.8%) followed by no pathologic finding (36.7%). The minority of patients (5.5%) had IM. Although 40.5% of patients had positive Helicobacter pylori infection preoperatively, just 13.8% had still positive infection postoperatively. A significant association was found between IM and hypercholesterolemia (odds ratio: 1.95; 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 3.5). Conclusion: This study found a correlation between histopathologic changes in patients with IM and hypercholesterolemia. Prospective research studies are recommended to further examine this correlation.