Is Conservative Management for Gastric Perforation Secondary to Intragastric Balloon Possible? Case Report and Review of Literature

• Published in: Obesity surgery Vol. 24; no. 6; pp. 968 - 970
• Main Authors: Bekheit, Mohamed, Abdelsalam, Wael Nabil, Sgromo, Bruno, Catheline, Jean-Marc, Katri, Khaled
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01-06-2014; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Brief Communication; Clinical outcomes; Device Removal; Female; Gastric Balloon - adverse effects; Gastroenterology; Humans; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Obesity; Obesity, Morbid - surgery; Stomach - injuries; Stomach Ulcer - diagnosis; Stomach Ulcer - etiology; Stomach Ulcer - therapy; Surgery; Transplants & implants; Complication; Morbid obesity; Gastric perforation; IGB; Conservative management
• ISSN: 0960-8923; 1708-0428
• DOI: 10.1007/s11695-014-1244-8

Intragastric balloon (IGB) is one of the available options for the management of morbid obesity. The procedure is generally safe and of moderate efficacy in most of the cases. One of the reported complications of IGB is gastric perforation. The management of this complication is classically surgical. To our knowledge, conservative management for gastric perforation secondary to IGB has not been reported. A 27-year-old female patient presented with sudden abdominal pain in the left upper quadrant, 2 months after having an IGB placed. The provisional diagnosis was gastric perforation. Balloon extraction was performed and a conservative management of the gastric perforation was pursued successfully. We therefore propose that this sort of management might be adopted in carefully selected cases.