New Treatment for Advanced Fatty Liver Disease Revealed

Patients with obesity and advanced fatty liver disease who had bariatric weight loss surgery significantly lowered their future risk of liver disease complications and serious cardiovascular disease compared with patients who did not have surgery, according to a Cleveland Clinic study.

Obesity is a major risk factor for developing an advanced form of fatty liver disease known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The accumulation of fat in the liver causes inflammation and damages the organ.

Fatty Liver Disease: A Growing Health Problem in India - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment
Non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the leading cause of liver dysfunction worldwide and is a rapidly growing health problem in India.

‘Sustained weight loss achieved with bariatric surgery can protect the heart and decrease the risk of progression to end-stage liver disease.’

Tweet it Now

As the liver disease progresses, scar tissues form in the liver, preventing the liver from functioning properly. A liver that is permanently damaged increases the risk for liver cancer and may require a transplant to survive.

In addition to complications related to liver disease, fatty liver and NASH are strongly linked to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack and heart failure.

To manage NASH, a multidisciplinary approach is needed to prevent further liver injury and minimize the future risk of serious cardiovascular events.

Weight Loss Drugs (Diet Pills)
Diet pills are medicines that help control or reduce weight. Diet pills are otherwise know as weight loss drugs or anti-obesity medications.

However, there are currently no approved medical treatments for NASH and no therapy has been shown to reduce the risk of serious cardiovascular events or liver disease progression in patients with NASH.

"There is currently no FDA-approved medication for fatty liver," said Ali Aminian, M.D., director of Cleveland Clinic𠏋 Bariatric & Metabolic Institute and lead investigator of the study.

Alcohol Effects After Bariatric Surgery
Gastric sleeve and gastric bypass surgery potentiate the intoxicating effects of alcohol due to its faster rate of absorption into the blood and slower metabolism.

To find a new option, a new study investigated the long-term relationship between weight loss surgery and future risk of progression to cirrhosis and the development of serious cardiovascular events in patients with NASH and obesity. The results were published in JAMA.

Researchers studied 1,158 adult patients with biopsy-proven NASH who had their liver biopsy between 2004 and 2016 at Cleveland Clinic and were followed through March 2021.

Bariatric Surgery - Short Term and Long Term Outcomes
The benefits of bariatric surgery outweigh its side-effects. With the surgery you can lose 45 to 60% of the original weight and this has benefits on blood sugar, sleep and heart disease.

A bariatric surgery group of 650 patients was compared with a control group of 508 nonsurgical patients. Study participants had similar characteristics such as the severity of liver disease at their baseline liver biopsy.

Ten years after enrollment, advanced liver disease (progression to cirrhosis, liver cancer, need for a liver transplant, or death from liver disease) occurred in 2.3% in the surgical group versus 9.6% in the control group.

In addition, at the end of the study, 8.5% in the surgical group and 15.7% in the nonsurgical group developed major adverse cardiovascular events such as heart attack, heart failure, stroke, or death from heart disease.

At 10 years, body weight was reduced by 22.4% in the surgical group and by 4.6% in the nonsurgical group. Bariatric surgery also was associated with a significant reduction in blood sugar levels in patients with diabetes.

These findings confirm the durability of health benefits of weight loss surgery.

Source-Medindia