Early experience with bariatric surgery by an experienced gastric cancer surgeon in a tertiary center

Purpose: Although some gastric cancer surgeons in Korean tertiary centers have recently expanded their surgical expertise to include bariatric surgery, early clinical data on such transitions remain limited.This study aimed to evaluate the initial surgical and clinical outcomes of bariatric surgeries performed by a gastric cancer surgeon in Korea.Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 33 patients who underwent bariatric surgery between October 2019 and December 2024 at Severance Hospital, Korea.All procedures were performed by a single surgeon with extensive experience in minimally invasive gastric cancer surgery.Patient demographics, surgical outcomes, weight loss, and comorbidity resolution were analyzed over a 12-month postoperative period.Results: Among the 33 patients, 29 (87.9%)underwent sleeve gastrectomy (SG), 3 (9.1%)underwent SG with duodenojejunal bypass, and 1 (3.0%) underwent resectional Rouxen-Y gastric bypass.The 30-day morbidity rate was 18.2%, with only one (3.0%)major complication.At 12 months, the mean percent excess weight loss and percent total weight loss were 62.3%21.6%and 25.5%9.6%,respectively.Improvement or resolution of comorbidities was observed in 56.3% of patients with diabetes mellitus, 26.3% of patients with hypertension, 14.2% of patients with dyslipidemia, and 31.8% of patients with fatty liver.Conclusions: Bariatric surgery performed by a gastric cancer surgeon at a tertiary center demonstrated short-term outcomes comparable to those reported by bariatric surgeons.