Background

Anastomotic leak, staple-line bleeding and strictures are among the main complications associated with bariatric surgery. With the use of intraoperative endoscopy, it has been reported that after the detection of an anastomotic leak in up to 96% of the patients the leak could be eliminated after laparoscopic reinforcement of the anastomosis. Intraoperative endoscopy can detect these strictures for later correction by laparoscopic remove of the reinforcement. The use of intraoperative endoscopy is a reliable technique that aids in the detection of anastomotic leaks and staple-line bleeding in bariatric surgery. In our series, we identified that up to 14% of all surgeries presented at least one of these complications which were corrected during the same surgery.