Influence of bariatric surgery on the non-alcoholic liver steatosis. A histological evaluation

Non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) is highly prevalent in obese patients. The aim of this study is to look at the development of the histological lesions in these patients that we treated using biliopancreatic diversion. A liver biopsy was performed on 76 obese patients who were operated on using bariatric surgery. Another liver biopsy was performed on 39 of them between 12 and 24 months after the surgery. The clinical and analytical variables at the time of the surgery, and at 18 months were analysed. A total of 67 patients (88.1%) had NAFL at the time of the operation. Simple steatosis was seen in 41 (61.2%) patients and 26 (38.8%) had non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). An improvement was seen in both the associated pathology and the analytical evaluations. A significant improvement was observed in the degree of steatosis as well as the NASH in the second biopsy performed on 39 patients. There were no deteriorations in the lesions in any of the patients. There is a high prevalence of NAFL among obese patients. Bariatric surgery (Scopinaro) leads to weight loss which is associated to an improvement in the pathology associated with obesity, as well as a significant decrease in the liver function values. After weight loss, almost all our patients showed an improvement in the histological hepatic lesions, and in particular, that NASH disappeared in 85% of them.