A Systematic Review of Bariatric Surgery in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is becoming a common cause of liver cirrhosis and a significant number of patients undergoing bariatric surgery suffer with it. There is currently lack of consensus among surgeons regarding safety of bariatric surgery in patients with liver cirrhosis and the best bariatric procedure in these patients. This review investigates published English language scientific literature systematically in an attempt to answer these questions. Eleven studies that reported experience of bariatric surgery in cirrhotic obese patients were included in this review. This review shows an acceptably higher overall risk of complications and perioperative mortality with bariatric surgery in cirrhotic patients. Surgeons must discuss the possibility of an unexpected intraoperative diagnosis of cirrhosis preoperatively with all bariatric surgery patients and agree on a course of action.