Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: The learning curve

The Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is an effective procedure for durable weight reduction in patients with severe obesity. The laparoscopic gastric bypass, though technically challenging, may be associated with a shorter hospital stay and recovery, as well as a reduction in wound infection and hernia rates. We describe the process of development of our technique for laparoscopic bypass, and the results of our first 30 patients. Operative times dropped markedly after the first 5 cases, and continued to decline throughout the series. Procedure related complications appeared to decrease after the first 15 cases.