A Cleveland Clinic study has found that bariatric surgery can significantly reduce the risk of liver complications in patients with obesity and fatty liver-related cirrhosis.
The results, published in Nature Medicine, found that weight loss surgery was associated with a 72% lower risk of developing serious liver complications compared to medical therapy alone, according to a Jan. 27 news release from Cleveland Clinic.
The study followed 62 patients with obesity and compensated cirrhosis caused by metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, comparing them to a control group of 106 nonsurgical patients. After 15 years, 20.9% of the surgery group developed major liver complications, including liver cancer or death, compared to 46.4% in the nonsurgical group.
Additionally, 15.6% of surgical patients progressed to decompensated cirrhosis, compared to 30.7% in the nonsurgical group.
Currently, there are limited treatment options for patients with MASH-related cirrhosis, and lifestyle changes alone do not produce sufficient results, Steven Nissen, MD, chief academic officer of the clinic’s Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute and the study’s senior investigator, said in the release.