Clinical Study Platelet Counts and Liver Enzymes after Bariatric Surgery

Copyright © 2013 Hans-Erik Johansson et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Obesity is characterized by liver steatosis, chronic inflammation, and increased liver enzymes, that is, gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), markers for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and liver fat content. Increased platelet counts (PCs) are associated with inflammatory conditions and are a valuable biomarker of the degree of fibrosis in NAFLD. We investigated alterations in PC, GGT, and ALT after biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch (BPD-DS) and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP).Methods. Ten morbidly obese patients (body mass index, BMI: 53.5 ± 3.8 kg/m2) who underwent BPD-DS were evaluated preoperatively (baseline) and 1 year (1st followup) and 3 years (2nd followup) after surgery and compared with 21 morbidly obese patients (BMI: 42.3 ± 5.2 kg/m2) who underwent RYGBP. Results. Over the 3 years of followup, changes in BPD-DS and RYGBP patients (BPD-DS/RYGBP) were as follows: BMI (−44%/−24%), GGT (−63%/−52%), and ALT (−48%/−62%). PCdecreased (−21%) statistically significantly only inBPD-DSpatients.Conclusions.Morbidly obese patients treated by RYGBP or BPD-DS show sustained reductions in BMI, ALT, and GGT.The decrease in PC and liver enzymes after BPD-DSmay reflect a more pronounced decrease of liver-fat-content-related inflammation and, as a result, a lowered secondary thrombocytosis. 1