Healthcare Industry News: nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
News Release - October 24, 2007
Liver Health Improves after Bariatric Surgery
ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 24 (HSMN NewsFeed) -- Does bariatric surgery reverse the damaging effects on the liver caused by an excess of fat? The results of this study conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch demonstrate the effects are reversed. This was not the case earlier in the history of this surgery according to the principal investigator on this study Dr. Raj Mummadi, "The overall liver health deteriorated of some patients who underwent the surgery in the past." Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is common in people who are obese and can progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which is inflammation of the liver and often results in the need for a liver transplantation.The research team conducted a meta-analysis of an electronic database to compare the histological features of 628 patients with NAFLD before and after having bariatric surgery. They report that 88 percent of those patients demonstrated improvement and or resolution of fatty liver after weight loss surgery.
Of those 762 patients, 568 had NASH, and 80.28 percent of those had an improvement in and 52.1 percent had complete resolution of steatosis. The inflammation progressed in n only 2.9 percent of patients after bariatric surgery.
Fibrosis, or scarring of the liver, was measured through biopsies which were performed on patients between 8 and 41 months after bariatric surgery. Biopsies from those patients showed that 41.79 percent improved, 25.37 percent remained the same, and 16.41 percent worsened.
The authors concluded that liver health improves due to the resolution of inflammation and there is a very low risk of further damage to the liver caused by fibrosis progression. "We feel we have laid to rest any concerns of liver health deteriorating after bariatric surgery as so few patients experienced this while the majority experienced improvement or no change in regard to the health of their livers."
Abstract title:
Effect of bariatric surgery on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): A meta-analysis
AASLD is the leading medical organization for advancing the science and practice of hepatology. Founded by physicians in 1950, AASLD's vision is to prevent and cure liver diseases. This year's Liver Meeting, held in Boston, Massachusetts November 2-6, will bring together almost 5,000 researchers from 55 countries.
A pressroom will be available from November 3 at the annual meeting. For copies of abstracts and press releases, or to arrange for pre-conference research interviews contact Gregory Bologna at 703-299-9766. To pre-register, call Ann Tracy at 703-299-9766.
Press releases and all abstracts are available online at www.aasld.org.
Source: AASLD
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