Gastrointestinal Symptoms in the Morbidly Obese

Morbidly obese patients are thought to experience more gastrointestinal symptoms than nonobese patients, but data concerning the relative frequency of these symptoms are lacking. To address this issue, investigators in the U.S. prospectively evaluated 101 morbidly obese patients (BMI >40 kg/m²; 92 women) who were scheduled to undergo bariatric surgery at a single clinic during a 1-year period. GI symptoms of these patients were compared with those of 101 age- and sex-matched nonobese controls. All patients underwent endoscopies and, if appropriate, histologic evaluation.

Morbidly obese patients were more likely than nonobese patients to have heartburn (32.6% vs. 18.8%; P=0.02), hiatal hernia (38.6% vs. 13.8%; P<0.001), and chronic gastritis …