After Gastric Bypass Surgery, Is A Drain Left In The Patient? - Dr. Orris

Dr. Orris:
After gastric bypass surgery typically the patients wake up with what’s called the ‘drain’. It’s called the Jackson-Pratt drain and the purpose of this drain is to monitor what’s called the anastomosis and it’s the connection between the stomach and the small bowel.

The major concern is, “Do you have a leak?” Or does that patient have a post-operative leak. A leak could happen for many reasons. It could be one, technical that during the surgery there was a small opening that was missed or undiagnosed and even with different blue dye studies that we use and upper GIs it could be missed and especially if it’s a very small leak. So therefore it could be picked up in the drain.

Next would be for bleeding because we are going and transecting the stomach and re-routing intestine and creating these anastomoses where you are disrupting blood supplies and that blood supply could ooze through the staple lines and we typically have that drain out of the patient before they leave the hospital. So the drain is only in a day or two, and right when the patient will start their liquid diet usually about 12 hours later we will pull that drain out and it’s really not painful or anything to get that drain out, but it’s just, everything is belt and suspenders in surgery so you want to make sure you check and double check. We always say, “look twice; cut once” and that’s what the drain’s for.

So we will test to make sure that the patient has an intact anastomosis or that connection through a blue dye study intraoperatively, an upper GI study post-operatively, and we will also have them drink the first several ounces of clear liquids they get will be with blue dye and as they drink that, if there’s blue dye that comes out of the drain, well then you know there’s a small leak and the patient has to have that repaired.

About Dr. Michael J. Orris, D.O., M.B.A.:
Originally from Pennsylvania, Dr. Michael Orris completed his surgical residency at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. As a surgeon he recognized the negative impact that excess weight has on society, and developed a passion for helping patients attain and maintain a healthy body weight.

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