Introduction:The obese patient who is treated with laparoscopic bariatric surgery is complex for the anesthesiologist because of its anatomofunctional characteristics and associated diseases. Objective: To identify the presence of perioperative complications and their relationship with preoperative factors and intraoperative anesthetic behavior that may constitute indicators of prediction of complications. Materials and Methods: An analytical, observational, longitudinal, retrospective study was carried out in 476 obese patients surgically operated by laparoscopic vertical gastroplication. Immediate intraoperative and postoperative clinical complications and their relationship with demographic, clinical, anthropometric and anestheticdependent variables were identified, which constituted risk factors. With the risk factors identified, a prognostic index was constructed and subsequently validated. Results: The immediate intraoperative and postoperative complications were few. It was possible to identify three independent risk factors, given by the previous respiratory functional status, the anesthetic technique used and the surgical time. A prognostic index of complications was constructed that grouped patients at low, intermediate and high risk of presenting complications. Conclusions: The grouping of risk factors as a predictive index of complications was effective because the complication prediction capacity could be estimated and validated.