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Longitudinal Comparison of the Effect of Gastric Bypass to Sleeve Gastrectomy on Liver Function in a Bariatric Cohort: Tehran Obesity Treatment Study (TOTS)

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Abstract

Background

Patients with morbid obesity commonly have fatty liver disease and elevated liver enzymes. While surgery effectively induces weight loss, bariatric techniques may differ regarding liver function improvement.

Objectives

To evaluate and compare the trends of liver function recovery after gastric bypass surgery (GB) with sleeve gastrectomy (SG).

Setting

University hospitals, Iran.

Methods

Adult bariatric candidates without a history of alcohol consumption or other etiologies of liver disease who underwent SG (n = 682) or GB (n = 355) were included. Trends of weight loss parameters and alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) at 0, 6 (in 90.4%), 12 (in 83.5%), and 24 months (in 67.1%) were compared using generalized estimating equations method.

Results

Overall, 1037 patients with mean age of 38.4 ± 11.2 and mean body mass index of 44.9 ± 6.2 kg/m2 were analyzed. Seventy-eight percent of patients had fatty liver by ultrasound. Both GB and SG patients lost significant weight, with GB patients having a higher percentage of excess weight loss at 24 months (80.1% vs. 75.9%, Pbetween-group = .008). SG patients showed more favorable trends in liver chemistries with significantly lower ALT at 12 months and AST and ALP levels at 6 and 12 months. However, the two groups were comparable at 24 months. Significantly more GB patients developed high ALT at 6 and high AST at 6 and 12 months. Undergoing GB was associated with smaller 0–12-month changes in ALT, AST, and ALP.

Conclusions

Bariatric surgery resulted in improvement in liver function parameters, with SG showing advantages over GB in the first postoperative year.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Mohammad Hassan Kalantar Motamedi for his editorial assistance and language editing of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery at St. Paul’s Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Mohammad Ali Kalantar Motamedi

  2. Tehran Obesity Treatment Center, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

    Alireza Khalaj

  3. Obesity Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Mahdavi, Majid Valizadeh, Farhad Hosseinpanah & Maryam Barzin

Authors
  1. Mohammad Ali Kalantar Motamedi
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  2. Alireza Khalaj
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  3. Maryam Mahdavi
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  5. Farhad Hosseinpanah
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  6. Maryam Barzin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maryam Barzin.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was reviewed and approved by the institutional Human Research Review Committee (No. 2ECRIES 93/03/13) and written informed consent was obtained from all patients prior to enrollment.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Motamedi, M.A.K., Khalaj, A., Mahdavi, M. et al. Longitudinal Comparison of the Effect of Gastric Bypass to Sleeve Gastrectomy on Liver Function in a Bariatric Cohort: Tehran Obesity Treatment Study (TOTS). OBES SURG 29, 511–518 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-018-3537-9

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