Introduction: The wide net of physiological issues involved in metabolic surgery is extremely complex. Nonetheless, compared anatomy and phisiology can provide good clues of how digestive tracts are shaped for more or less caloric food, for more or less fiber, for abundance and for scarcity. Objective: To review data from Compared Anatomy and Physiology, and in the Evolutionary Sciences that could help in the better comprehension of the metabolic surgery. Method: A focused review of the literature selecting information from these three fields of knowledge in databases: Cochrane Library, Medline and SciELO, articles and book chapters in English and Portuguese, between 1955 and 2019, using the headings “GIP, GLP-1, PYY, type 2 diabetes, vertebrates digestive system, hominid evolution, obesity, bariatric surgery “. Results: The digestive tract of superior animals shows highly specialized organs to digest and absorb specific diets. In spite of the wide variations of digestive systems, some general rules are observed. The proximal part of the digestive tract, facing the scarcity of sugars, is basically dedicated to generate sugar from different substrates (gluconeogenesis). Basic proximal gut tasks are to proportionally input free sugars, insulin, other fuels and to generate anabolic elements to the blood, some of them obesogenic. To limit the ingestion by satiety, by gastric emptying diminution and to limit the excessive elevation of major fuels (sugar and fat) in the blood are mostly the metabolict asks of the distal gut. A rapid and profound change in human diet composition added large amounts of high glycemic index foods. They seem to have caused an enhancement in the endocrine and metabolic activities of the proximal gut and a reduction in these activities of the distal gut. The most efficient models of metabolic surgery indeed make adjustments in this proximal/distal balance in the gut metabolic activities. Conclusion: Metabolic surgery works basically by making adjustments to the proximal and distal gut metabolic activities that resemble the action of natural selection in the development the digestive systems of superior animals.

Objective Sleeve gastrectomy is the fastest growing surgical procedure to treat obesity in the world but it may cause or worsen gastroesophageal reflux disease. This article originally aimed to describe the addition of anti-reflux procedures (removal of periesophageal fats pads, hiatoplasty, a small plication and fixation of the gastric remnant in position) to the usual sleeve gastrectomy and to report early and late results.Methods Eighty-eight obese patients that also presented symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease were submitted to sleeve gastrectomy with anti-reflux procedures. Fifty of them were also submitted to a transit bipartition. The weight loss of these patients was compared to consecutive 360 patients previously submitted to the usual sleeve gastrectomy and to 1,140 submitted to sleeve gastrectomy + transit bipartition. Gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms were specifically inquired in all anti-reflux sleeve gastrectomy patients and compared to the results of the same questionnaire applied to 50 sleeve gastrectomy patients and 60 sleeve gastrectomy + transit bipartition patients that also presented preoperative symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease.Results In terms of weight loss, excess of body mass index loss percentage after anti-reflux sleeve gastrectomy is not inferior to the usual sleeve gastrectomy and anti-reflux sleeve gastrectomy + transit bipartition is not inferior to sleeve gastrectomy + transit bipartition. Anti-reflux sleeve gastrectomy did not add morbidity but significantly diminished gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms and the use of proton pump inhibitors to treat this condition.Conclusion The addition of anti-reflux procedures, such as hiatoplasty and cardioplication, to the usual sleeve gastrectomy did not add morbidity neither worsened the weight loss but significantly reduced the occurrence of gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms as well as the use of proton pump inhibitors.

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