Laparoscopic Small Bowel Length Measurement: Non-associative Nature of Total Small Bowel Length with Anthropometric and Clinical characteristics in Patients Undergoing Bariatric Surgery

Background Small bowel length (SBL) may have an impact on the outcomes of bariatric surgeries, but it may be difficult to make a direct association between small bowel length and safety and outcome of bariatric surgeries. Objectives To address this issue, we set out to devise a predictive model for SBL determination based on clinical and anthropometric variables. Setting An academic tertiary medical center. Method Anthropometric and clinical data, including age, sex, height, weight and past medical history, were collected upon enrollment. SBL was measured twice during the surgery using a marked grasper. In all cases, measurements were carried out by a single surgeon. To create a predictive model, a two-step approach was employed: in the first step, linear regression was used to determine influential variables. In the second step, all variables with a P-value < 0.2 were entered into a multivariate regression model. Results Overall, 961 bariatric candidates were enrolled. The mean age of the participants was 40.08 years and 77.5% (n=745) were female. The mean SBL was 748.90 cm. There was a weak but statistically significant positive correlation between SBL with both weight and height. Our univariate linear model determined only anthropometric parameters as a predictor of small bowel length. The multivariate model also yielded that none of the entered parameters were shown to be accurate predictors of SBL. Moreover, only 4.3% of variances were explainable by this model. Conclusion Although we found a weak positive association between height and SBL, this association lacked clinical practicality.