Transumbilical Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in morbidly obese patients: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Transumbilical single-incision Roux-en-Y gastric bypass constitutes a delicate technique of the conventional laparoscopic approach, which is the gold standard for the treatment of obesity. METHODS: In order to investigate its efficacy and feasibility, PubMed was searched up to April 25th, 2015. Ten studies reporting on 247 patients with a mean age of 37.3 years were eligible. RESULTS: Mean preoperative Body Mass Index was 42.4 kg/m(2). Most common comorbidities were diabetes and dyslipidemia. Mean operative time was 128.5 min and mean length of hospital stay was 3.3 days. No conversions to open surgery were reported. CONCLUSION: Clinical outcomes of the transumbilical Roux-en-Y gastric bypass appear to be comparable with those of the conventional laparoscopic one. However, more trials are necessary to elucidate all of its aspects.