“What causes heartburn after gastric bypass surgery?”

A small amount of heartburn after gastric bypass can be normal. You can over the counter medications for heartburn. If those do not help or the symptoms become severe you should call you doctor/surgeon.

Heartburn after roux en y gastric surgery is unusual since the acid-producing cells in the stomach lining are distal to the site where the food is re-routed. Do you have burning in your chest or mouth or are you calling discomfort or pain in the upper abdomen heartburn? If it is pain in the upper abdomen it could come from food stretching the small stomach pouch in the upper abdomen which is connected to the esophagus naturally. Smaller meals could diminish that type of discomfort.

It's not uncommon to see this after bypass surgery. Go ahead and use over the counter zantac or pepcid. Other options include nexium or prilosec. Any of these pills should help control heartburn.