Bile Diversion an Alternative to Weight Loss Surgery

Scientists at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have found an alternative to bariatric weight loss surgery.

In this study, scientists have come up with a novel procedure termed as 'bile diversion', in which they used a catheter to re-direct the flow of bile from the bile duct into the small intestine, thereby producing the exact metabolic and weight loss benefits as that of different bariatric surgeries such as gastric bypass.

"This may lead to novel ways to treat obesity related conditions," lead investigator Rohit Kohli, MBBS, MS, a physician and researcher in the Division of Gastroenterology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, said in a news release. "Our results provide compelling evidence that manipulation of bile acids is sufficient to recreate the key effects of bariatric procedures, including gastric bypass, and may be especially beneficial to people with obesity related liver dysfunction." 

Severely obese people and those with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease opt for therapeutic options such as bariatric surgery.

In this study, researcher Kohli along with researchers from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine worked on the hypothesis that they can recreate the benefits of bariatric surgery by diverting the bile acid in obese rats.

Male rats who had diet-induced obesity got either the bile diversion procedure or a sham surgery, in which the researchers dissected the bile duct. The control group consisted of animals that never underwent any surgery. Finally, the metabolic effects of bile diversion, sham surgery and those who never underwent any surgery were compared.

The researchers noticed that those rats that underwent bile diversion had high levels of bile acids in their blood and showed an increased weight loss, lower liver fat, improved glucose tolerance and low fat mass, but the same was absent in the sham and control group.

The details of the study were published online in the journal Endocrinology