Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis on preoperative period of gastric bypass: lack of correlation with degree of obesity.

Background: Metabolic disorders have high correlation with severe forms of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. However, there is no non-invasive method that promotes its proper stratification and biopsy remains the ideal diagnostic tool.

Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of this disease in obese in preoperative period of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and metabolic factors correlated with liver histopathology.

Methods: From a total of 47 patients, 35 were enrolled in the inclusion criteria and 12 excluded due to liver disease and alcohol intake >80 g/week. Were performed clinical and laboratory evaluation before the surgery and intraoperative liver biopsy . The intensity was ranked in grade of steatohepatitis: I (mild to moderate) and II (diffuse inflammation), III ( periportal fibrosis) and IV (cirrhosis). Were compared the following variables: duration of obesity, body mass index, waist-hip ratio, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and dyslipidemia.

Results: Thirty -five patients (68.6 % women , mean age 37 years) were evaluated. The mean body mass index preoperatively was 53.04 kg/m². Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis was found in 31 patients (88.6 %) and 32.2% were in grade I (n=10), grade II 45.2% (n=14), and 25.6% grade III (n=7). The waist-hip ratio was associated with hepatic steatosis; hypertriglyceridemia was the marker that had best correlation with higher grade; there was no correlation between aminotransferase and intensity of the disease; there was correlation of intensity with factors related to insulin resistance.

Conclusion: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is highly prevalent in morbidly obese patients, but there was no positive correlation between aminotransferases and degree of obesity and liver histopathology. Hypertriglyceridemia and waist-hip ratio were positively correlated with the intensity of disease.