Management of sleeve gastrectomy leakage: case report

Treatment of postoperative gastric fistula complicated by local and systemic infection is difficult and controversial, particularly when treating obese patients with multiple prior surgical procedures. A 41-year-old male patient was transferred to our hospital to be admitted in the Intensive Care Unit with respiratory failure and postoperative sepsis, after being submitted to bariatric surgery. He had been through four subsequent surgical procedures: 1- a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy; 2- an exploratory laparotomy for unproven suspected subphrenic abscess; 3- a laparotomy with splenectomy and peritoneal drainage for splenic and peri-splenic abscess; 4-celiotomy and lavage for purulent peritonitis. Due to persistent clinical and analytical deterioration, and suspicion of left subphrenic abscess and digestive fistula, we proceeded to: identification and drainage of the abscess, adhesiolysis, identification of fistula orifice at the cardiac incisure (methylene blue and perioperative endoscopy), placement of a Pezzer tube for directed and controlled fistulization, Shirley’s drain in the subphrenic space for continuous lavage, jejunostomy for enteral nutrition. Under clinical and imaging control (esophageal transit, fistulography and computed tomography with water-soluble contrasts) he was started on a water diet 2 months after and the Shirley’s drain was later removed. Patient was discharged two and a half months after the intervention, maintaing the Pezzer tube and under enteral nutrition by jejunostomy. Oral feeding started in the 3rd postoperative month and jejunostomy and Pezzer probes were removed. Patient was asymptomatic at seven-month postoperative outpatient appointment.

An Unexpected Case of Perforated Acalculous Cholecystitis Caused by a Fish Bone

Gallbladder inflammation is most often determined by the presence of gallstones. Acalculous cholecystitisusually occurs in patients with multiple comorbidities or with an immunosuppressed status, and therefore itsevolution is faster and more severe compared to acute calculous cholecystitis. The presence of a fish bone intothe peritoneal cavity, through a gastrointestinal fistula is not very rare, but acute cholecystitis caused by a fishbone is unexpected. Here, we present the case of a 75-year old woman who had eaten fish two months beforeand presented at the Emergency Room with perforated acalculous cholecystitis and a right subphrenic abscess.The laparoscopic approach permitted the evacuation of the subphrenic abscess, bipolar cholecystectomy andremoval of a fish bone from nearby the cystic duct. Postoperative evolution was uneventful, with hospitaldischarge after five days. The patient was in good clinical condition at two months follow-up.