Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist
After gastric bypass surgery, there's a decrease in levels of an appetite stimulating hormone, according to a new study.
Gastric bypass surgery can be a satisfactory, maybe even lifesaving, treatment for severe obesity. Now surgeons at Emory University, Atlanta, shed new light on how the operation may help cure obesity.
They find that there are reduced levels of the hormone ghrelin after surgery. Ghrelin is known to stimulate appetite. Its decrease might explain why the sensation of hunger seems diminished after gastric bypass. But this decline was only seen when a specific technique of gastric surgery was used.
This involves division of the stomach so that a large part of it is no longer part of the digestive system. Other procedures, which don't involve complete division of the stomach, were not linked to decreased ghrelin levels and this may mean that the outcome for the patient is less successful.
Source
Archives of Surgery July 2004 Volume 139 pages 780-784