The use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs after sleeve gastrectomy.

BACKGROUND

The use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is discouraged after bariatric surgery. The effect of NSAIDs on patients who have undergone sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is not well studied. Moreover, the rate of NSAID use after SG is unknown.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the rate of NSAID use after SG, and its associated complications.

SETTING

A single institution, multi-surgeon, academic, tertiary care hospital.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective review of patients who underwent SG between January 1, 2014, and November 1, 2017. A phone interview was conducted with identified patients. The inclusion criteria were any patient who had undergone SG during the study period, and there were no exclusion criteria.

RESULTS

We identified 421 SG patients for inclusion. There were 231 phone surveys completed, with 64.5% of respondents reporting some NSAID use after SG. Of the respondents who used NSAIDs, 40.3% reported that they used the drugs often (>once/wk), 28.2% reported occasional use (>once/mo but <once/wk), and 31.5% reported rare use (<once/mo). Nearly 26% of phone interview respondents regularly used NSAIDs after SG. A retrospective review of the 421-patient cohort revealed 0 cases of sleeve complications secondary to NSAID use when searching for incidences of bleeding, ulceration, gastritis, gastropathy, perforation, leak, or stenosis.

CONCLUSION

NSAID use in our bariatric surgery population is high despite an institutional policy to prohibit their use across all bariatric patients. Despite the high incidence of NSAID use in our patient population, we could not identify a single case of an NSAID-induced gastrointestinal complication in our retrospective review. NSAID use after SG may be a safe and viable pain management strategy that needs further evaluation.