Preoperative risk factors for early hemorrhagic complications in bariatric surgery: a case–control study

BACKGROUND Although a reliable procedure in morbid obesity treatment, bariatric surgery may be associated with serious complications such as leakage or bleeding. We aimed to analyze the preoperative factors involved in patients with early postoperative hemorrhage after any type of bariatric surgery who required conservative treatment or reoperation for this complication. METHODS Retrospective case-controlled study (1:3) of 2 patient cohorts (postoperative bleeding/controls) matched by type of surgical intervention. RESULTS Hypertension (Odds Ratio 5.029; 95% Confidence Interval 1.78-14.13) and history of antiplatelet medication (OR 13.263; 95% CI 1.39-125.9) were independent risk factors in the bivariate analyses, confirmed in the logistic regression model on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS With no between-group differences in Body Mass Index (BMI) and type 2 Diabetes (T2D), early hemorrhagic complications were found to be more frequent in patients with hypertension or antiplatelet drug treatment.