What is a fatty liver pre-op diet and why wold I need one?

My doctor put me on a 7 day preop diet to shrink my liver. They do this so your liver is not so in the way during surgery. Mine was a mostly liquid diet....was very difficult to do. I have heard some doctors just ask that you lose 5-7 lbs before surgery. I am a week and a half post surgery and I am 20 lbs down since my preop diet. So all was worth it. I just looked at the preop diet as a way to lose more weight, just meant less I had to lose after surgery :tongue2:.

When a liver becomes fatty it also becomes brittle. This makes the surgery more complecated for the doctors. The diet is required because when you begin to los weight the body usually takes the extra fat from the organs first. This what was explained to me when I had to do my diet for surgery. I did not have any problems with the surgery. I hope this helps.

That was very informative. I had no idea that is why they ask you to go on that diet. I have my first appointment on Monday 22 Dec. I am learning so much from all of you who have done this already. Thank you for sharing!

Hi Kathi,

What was explained to me was that the liver is a very large organ in your body. It is located right next to your stomach and thus anytime a surgeon has to operate in or around your stomach area it greatly helps them if the liver is reduced in size. So most surgeons will ask their patients to go on a liver shrinking diet before surgery for this purpose.

Most surgeons have many different opinions as to what is the best liver shrinking diet. For me my liver shrinking diet was a 3 week diet of 2 meals a day being low carb shakes, I had Atkins shakes, and then the third meal was a low carb low fat meal. I followed this very closely and when I had my pre-op exame the day before my surgery the doctor was very happy and said I had a very small liver. Success! Not to mention I lost a good amount of weight on the LSD diet too.