Bile acid malabsorption after intestinal bypass surgery for obesity. A comparison between jejunoileal shunt and...

Seventeen patients were operated on with intestinal shunts for morbid obesity, in eight a biliointestinal bypass (BI) was constructed and in the rest a conventional jejunoileal (JI)-shunt. The reduction in weight was similar in both groups, and so was malabsorption of fat, but the BI-group had significantly less bowel motions with less watery diarrhoea. Bile acid malabsorption was measured both chemically by estimating the total amount of faecal bile acids excreted, as well as indirectly by using a 75Se-labelled synthetic bile acid (SeHCAT). Both techniques revealed a substantial loss of bile acid after both types of operation, but patients with BI bypass surgery had significantly lower elimination time of the bile acid than those with JI-shunts. There was a significant negative correlation between SeHCAT retention and total faecal bile acids. However, some patients with low SeHCAT retention had normal or even reduced output of faecal bile acids. Estimation of faecal bile acids may display false negative results when the bile acid pool is decreased. The SeHCAT-test seems to be a better technique for measuring bile acid losses. The study suggests that BI bypass surgery for obesity seems to be advantageous over the JI shunt in reducing the postoperative loss of bile acids and choleretic diarrhoea, without influencing the weight loss.