Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Sep 28, 2015; 7(21): 2315-2318
Published online Sep 28, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i21.2315
Liver transplantation and sleeve gastrectomy in the medically complicated obese: New challenges on the horizon
Diego C Reino, Keri E Weigle, Erik P Dutson, Adam S Bodzin, Keri E Lunsford, Ronald W Busuttil
Diego C Reino, Keri E Weigle, Adam S Bodzin, Keri E Lunsford, Ronald W Busuttil, Division of Liver and Pancreas Transplantation, Department of Surgery, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
Erik P Dutson, Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
Author contributions: The authors contributed equally to the submission of this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ronald W Busuttil, MD, PhD, FACS, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Division of Liver and Pancreas Transplantation, Department of Surgery, University of California Los Angeles, Pfleger Liver Institute, 757 Westwood Plaza, Suite 8501, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States. rbusuttil@mednet.ucla.edu
Telephone: +1-310-2678054 Fax: +1-310-2673668
Received: May 18, 2015
Peer-review started: May 19, 2015
First decision: June 4, 2015
Revised: July 24, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 8, 2015
Published online: September 28, 2015
Processing time: 127 Days and 21.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) has become a recognized hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome and NASH cirrhosis is predicted to be the primary indication for liver transplant (LT) in the United States by 2025. Previous reviews have shown that weight reduction surgery is a feasible endeavor in the liver failure patient. However, our review of the available literature highlights the need for a prospective clinical trial that will focus on the efficacy of sleeve gastrectomy in relation to LT perioperative outcomes, patient and allograft survival and prevention of NASH recurrence in the post-transplant setting.