Abstract
Background
Morbid obesity is the leading public health crisis in the United States, with bariatric
surgery as the only effective and enduring treatment for this disease. a concern has
been raised, that, postoperatively, alcohol metabolism might be altered in gastric
bypass patients. We hypothesized that alcohol metabolism in the postoperative gastric
bypass patient would be altered.
Methods
Of 36 subjects, 17 control and 19 postgastric bypass subjects each consumed 5 oz of
red wine. They underwent an alcohol breath analysis every 5 minutes. The outcomes
recorded included symptoms, initial peak alcohol breath level, and the time for alcohol
breath levels to normalize.
Results
The gastric bypass group was on average 10 years older and had a greater weight and
body mass index than the control group. The average time after gastric bypass was
2 years, with an average body mass index loss of 18 kg/m2 (51 kg/m2 before versus 33 kg/m2 after). The gastric bypass patients had a peak alcohol breath level of 0.08% and
the controls had a level of 0.05%. The gastric bypass group needed, on average, 108
minutes to reach an alcohol breath level of 0; the control group reached this level
after an average of 72 minutes. Both groups showed a similar postingestion symptom
profile.
Conclusion
In this study, alcohol metabolism was significantly different between the postgastric
bypass and control subjects. Although the gastric bypass patients’ had a greater peak
alcohol level and a longer time for the alcohol level to reach 0 than the controls,
the gastric bypass group did not experience more symptoms than the control group.
These findings provide caution regarding alcohol use by gastric bypass patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
July 4,
2007
Received in revised form:
June 26,
2007
Received:
May 6,
2007
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
