Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in gastric specimen following laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy

Background: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) for obese patients can give more gastric tissue that can add more precise information about Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) presence in relation to age, gender, and body mass index (BMI). Methodology: We retrospectively collected the computerized data and the pathology reports for all the patients who underwent LSG for obesity from 2008 to 2018 in King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Results: Of the total 1486 obese patients who underwent LSG, H. pylori was negative in 1025 patients (68.98%) and positive in 461 patients (31.02%). It was found that H. pylori positive was higher in females (53.15%) with lower BMI and was higher in males (58.82%) with higher BMI. H. pylori positive was present highly (45.16%) in the age group of more than 60 years. Conclusions: Data analysis showed that there is a relationship between increased BMI and the incidence of H. pylori. The contradiction of our results with other studies may be related to both small sample size and diagnostic test variability. Furthermore, our study found that maybe there is a relationship between BMI and the presence of H. pylori according to gender.