BATON ROUGE — Doctors are combining gastric sleeve surgery with liver transplantation, and this dual procedure is especially helpful for patients with a specific type of liver disease mostly caused by obesity.

As obesity rates rise, so does the need to treat patients with MASLD, Mayo Clinic's Dr. Julie Heimbach said.

"When we have excess fat that builds up in the liver, this can lead to inflammation and scarring and even advanced liver disease," Dr Heimbach said.

It won't cause complications for everyone, but, for some, it can progress to Cirrhosis.

"When a patient develops Cirrhosis, they can then need a liver transplant," Dr. Heimbach said.

Having extra weight can be a reason patients might not be eligible for a transplant. At the Mayo Clinic, the approach is to help patients with obesity as well as transplants.

"We consider both liver transplant and what's called a sleeve gastrectomy, which is a type of weight-loss operation that can be used as a tool to help patients be successful in managing not only their liver disease with a liver transplant but their obesity with the sleeve gastrectomy," she said.

The procedures are done simultaneously with multiple teams working together.

"I'm excited about what transplant offers to all of our patients, which is to be able to return to the life that they had before they got sick. And for patients who were carrying extra weight, not only are they healthy again, but now they're able to really fully enjoy and be fully participating in their life," Dr. Heimbach said