Benefits of stomach-stapling surgery could hold clue to weight-control: study

CHICAGO (AFP) - A certain type of stomach-stapling surgery, in which the stomach is completely and vertically partitioned, appears to be linked to a sharp decline in appetite-enhancing hormones, a study said. In a preliminary study with 42 morbidly obese people, the patients who underwent this type of gastric bypass surgery reported a 30 percent decline in the level of the hormone ghrelin compared to a control group.

The surgery in question is called Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery, and researchers said it appeared to result in long-term, if not permanent, suppression of ghrelin secretions.

" This study in part explains the dramatic weight loss many people experience following gastric bypass surgery," said lead researcher Edward Lin, adding that "this is the first time we have found that different types of weight loss surgeries affect ghrelin levels in humans."

The hormonal benefits were limited to the 34 patients who had RYGB and did not extend to eight other patients who had other types of gastric bypass surgery, according to the study in the Archives of Internal Medicine (news - web sites).

Lin said that while the reasons are still not entirely clear, the fact that RYGB surgery requires "complete division" of the stomach may be the decisive factor.

In RYGB surgery, doctors create a pouch out of the smaller or near portion of the stomach, and attach it to the small intestine, bypassing a large part of the stomach and all of the duodenum.
The finding could have implications for the millions of people who battle the bulge on a daily basis, according to Lin, an assistant professor of surgery at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.

" If you can find a way to control the release of ghrelin in the body, you can potentially prevent a person from overeating," he said.