Modeling the Effect of Sleeve Gastrectomy on Gastric Digestion in Stomach: Insights From Multiphase Flow Modeling

The geometry and motility of the stomach play a critical role in the digestion of ingested liquid meals. Sleeve gastrectomy, a common type of bariatric surgery used to reduce the size of the stomach, significantly alters the stomach's anatomy and motility, which impacts gastric emptying and digestion. In this study, we use an imaging data-based computational model, StomachSim, to investigate the consequences of sleeve gastrectomy. The pre-operative stomach anatomy was derived from imaging data, and the postsleeve gastrectomy shapes were generated for different resection volumes. We investigate the effect of sleeve sizes and motility patterns on gastric mixing and emptying. Simulations were conducted using an immersed-boundary flow solver, modeling a liquid meal to analyze changes in gastric mixing and emptying rates. The results reveal that different degrees of volume reduction and impaired gastric motility have complex effects on stomach's mixing and emptying functions, which are important factors in gastric health of the patient. Specifically, the total gastric liquid emptying rates increased by 21% with a 30% volume reduction and by 51% with reductions exceeding 50%, due to altered intragastric pressure. Additionally, impaired motility functions resulted in slower mixing, leading to delayed food emptying. These findings provide insights into the biomechanical effects of sleeve gastrectomy on gastric digestion and emptying functions, highlighting the potential of computational models to inform surgical planning and postoperative management.