Background

Intraabdominal organs which are manipulated in bariatric surgery are very familiar with gastric cancer surgeons. This study is aimed to assess the learning curve of gastric cancer surgeon for bariatric surgery.

Methods

Initial consecutive cases of single surgeon with more than 1000 cases of gastric cancer surgeries were enrolled in this study. The short-term results including operation details and postoperative complication were analyzed.

Results

A total 85 consecutive laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy cases were done from 2019 to 2022. Among them, three cases were performed with removal of adjustable gastric band. The mean age of 85 patients was 36.1±9.7 and the number of female patients was 54 (63.5%). The mean BMI was 40.9±6.1. The mean values of estimated blood loss and hospital stay after surgery were 20.5±37.7 cc and 3.3±0.5 days, respectively. There were no complications for postoperative leakage, bleeding and passage disturbance. No mortality was reported. The mean operation time for three cases of sleeve gastrectomy with adjustable band removal were 168.3±2.8 minute. In 82 sleeve gastrectomy cases, the mean operation times was 108.4±26.0 minute and the time to make a plateau for operation time was around the 30 case.

Conclusions

The learning curve of gastric cancer expert surgeon is excellent when performing bariatric surgery, especially sleeve gastrectomy.