Laparoscopic Small Bowel Length Measurement in Bariatric Surgery Using a Hand-Over-Hand Technique with Marked Graspers: an Ex Vivo Experiment.

Bariatric surgeons estimated bowel length with on average less than 10% deviation. However, this still resulted in 30% of the measurements with more than 15% deviation. There were considerable inter-individual differences between the surgeons and residents structurally underestimated the bowel length. Ascertainment of measurement accuracy and adequate training is essential for bariatric procedures in which limb length is of importance.