Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Almantas Maleckas, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Lithuania
- Second opponent: Senior Consultant and Visiting Reasearcher Jorunn Sandvik, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Marte Lie Høivik, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Torsten Eken, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Tom Mala, University of Oslo
Summary
Bariatric surgery results in sustained weight loss, resolution of obesity-related diseases and improvement in quality of life. Surgical complications and adverse events are widely explored in the literature. However, studies evaluating adverse events as chronic abdominal pain after bariatric surgery are few.
The aim of the dissertation was to evaluate the prevalence of chronic abdominal pain two years after gastric bypass and sleeve. Additionally, the prevalence of other abdominal symptoms and the quality of life was also evaluated. Analyses were performed to find preoperative risk factors of postoperative chronic abdominal pain.
The prevalence of chronic abdominal pain increased almost two-fold from before to two years after surgery; from 11.9% to 28.7% in the gastric bypass group, and from 14.3% to 26.9% in the sleeve group. At follow-up, patients with chronic abdominal pain had more abdominal symptoms compared to patients without chronic abdominal pain, with indigestion symptom scores being higher after gastric bypass and reflux symptom scores being higher after sleeve.
After surgery, quality of life increased for the entire population studied. At follow-up after both gastric bypass and sleeve, however, quality of life scores were lower in patient with chronic abdominal pain compared to patients without chronic abdominal pain.
Chronic abdominal pain before gastric bypass was likely risk factor of chronic abdominal pain after gastric bypass, while younger age and reflux symptoms before sleeve were likely risk factors of chronic abdominal pain after sleeve.
The dissertation shows that the prevalence of chronic abdominal pain increases after bariatric surgery, and that it has negative effect on quality of life. The abdominal symptom profile differs after gastric bypass and sleeve. Focus on chronic abdominal pain is relevant for the follow-up consultations after bariatric surgery and for preoperative counseling of the patients.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.