Endoscopic Management of Fistulas Related to Sleeve Gastrectomy With Double Pigtail Stents According to the BARTOLI Technique

Overview

Obesity is a major health problem in western countries, and sleeve gastrectomy has proven its effectiveness on weight loss and improvement of comorbidities related to obesity. The main complication is the occurrence of upper fistula (2%), and may be responsible of several deaths. There is no consensus on medical, radiological and surgical management of fistula. It depends on the resources of each center and is based on a low level evidence The inconstant efficacy of the endoscopic treatment by closing fistula (digestive stents, clips, glue) motivates a new endoscopic approach. It consists of an internal drainage of the collection by using double pigtail stents through the fistulous orifice.

Partially or fully covered stents are the most used method, but are not supported by any comparative studies. Their results are inconstant and the closure rate is estimated between 15 and 100%, with a hazardous median healing time. This method is associated with frequent complications, such as spontaneous migrations, impactions or ulcerations responsible for potentially fatal hematemesis. The preliminary results of using OTSC clips (OVESCO®) seem encouraging, but this technique requires external drainage to obtain a collection free from infection. A new approach is to perform an internal drainage of the peri-orificial collection by using double pigtail stents through the fistulous orifice and to direct the fistula closure from the outside to the inside. This endoscopic treatment, combined with nutritional support and initial antibiotic therapy, allows rapid weaning of external drainage and short healing times. CT and endoscopic evaluation are needed at the sixth week for stents removal in the event of a favorable evolution. In the opposite case, a second endoscopic treatment is performed. In case of unfavorable evolution, a radical surgical treatment, in the absence of endoscopic alternative, will be achieved.