Endoscopic Repair of Large Gastric Perforation Following Pneumatic Dilation of Sleeve Gastrectomy Stenosis

Sleeve gastrectomy has become the most commonly performed bariatric surgery in the USA (English et al.in Surg Obes Relat Dis. 14(3):259-63, 2018). Despite the rising popularity of this procedure, gastric stenosis is a known complication with an incidence of up to 4% (Rebibo et al. in Obes Surg. 26(5):995-1001, 2016). Endoscopic pneumatic balloon dilation is increasingly utilized to treat this condition and to ameliorate symptoms of nausea, vomiting, reflux, and/or dysphagia (Dhorepatil et al. in BMC Surg. 18(1):52, 2018). Pneumatic balloon dilation does carry a risk of gastric perforation of up to 3% in the limited literature to date (Donatelli et al. in Surg Obes Relat Dis. 13(6):943-50, 2017), historically requiring immediate surgical consultation for repair (Donatelli et al. Surg Obes Relat Dis. 13(6):943-50, 2017). In this case series, two cases of gastric perforation during pneumatic dilation for gastric sleeve stenosis were repaired successfully endoscopically with use of an endoscopic suturing system, resulting in correction of gastric defect and elimination of symptoms.