Background

Functional dyspepsia (FD), defined as 'the presence of symptoms thought to originate from the gastroduodenal region, in the absence of organic disease,' occurs more often in females and individuals over the age of 60 years. At a median of 13 months following sleeve gastrectomy (SG), dyspepsia occurs in 59.4% of patients. We aimed to report the prevalence of FD and preliminary results on predictors of development and resolution of FD after SG.

Methods

To assess FD, we examined 70 patients who completed a FD questionnaire, based on Rome III criteria, before and after SG between 5/15/2018-10/13/2021 at a single bariatric surgery center. Chi square was used to compare differences in proportions and a logistic regression to assess predictive factors.

Results

The prevalence of FD was 21% (15/70) pre- and 26% (18/70) post-SG. Following SG, FD resolved in 10/15 patients (67%) at a median time of 5.4 months. Thirteen of 55 (24%) patients without FD developed de novo FD post-SG after a median of 2.4 months. Gender, age, presence of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, sleep apnea or esophageal reflux, and post-SG weight loss failed to predict resolution or development of FD post-SG.

Conclusions

The prevalence of FD before and after sleeve gastrectomy is 21% and 26%, respectively. Resolution and development of FD after SG occurs in 67% and 24% of patients, respectively. In this small sample, we could not identify predictors of resolution or de novo FD. Further studies on the relationship between FD and SG are warranted.