Will They Sew Me Back Up?

[kcsmicah 51]

I had some labs done last week for allergy testing and my ALT level came back at 185. Now I am freaking out that the surgeon is gonna get in there and be like "Wow! Her liver is really fatty and I can't do this surgery !" Does a high ALT level mean that your liver is really fatty?? Any help from anyone that has been in this situation would be great!! My surgery is less than 72 hours away!!

[Lisa :) 231]

185 seems pretty high. Several years ago I had a gallstone blocking my hepatic duct which caused pretty high AST and ALT levels....but it took weeks to determine what was causing it. Have you had an ultrasound of your liver done? I would think that your doctor would want to know what's causing it....Does your Dr's office have the results yet? And, are you feeling sick at all? I know you don't want anything affecting your surgery but you also want to make sure that everything else with your health is okay before you have major surgery.

Good Luck....hope everything works out okay!!!!!

[Catracks 865]

I'm curious if you went on a pre-op diet. That's what surgeons usually ask for to deal with fatty liver. My doctor also had a full abdominal ultrasound done.I wouldn'y think they'd postpone surgery, but I would like to know if it's just a case of fatty liver or something else. I had a further test that ruled out hepatitis which is the next stage of fatty liver disease.

[Indymom 132]

My surgeon didn't require a pre-op diet and said that typically the liver didn't give him any problems when operating. That said, I also didn't have highly-elevated liver levels. I would recommend asking your surgeon point-blank before you go under.

[circa 333]

this is typically what the preop diet is for. You may have to do it longer - your surgeon will let you know. That is quite high - but it can be caused by a number of different things. Please follow the preop diet and talk directly with your surgeon about this. Good luck to you!

[wondering1 103]

Why not call your surgeon and straight up ask him? You might be worried for nothing and that will make you feel better.

Let me know what he says.

[SuperMom 33]

Liver enzymes ALT and AST can go up due to many things (alcohol intake, too many ibuprophen, viruses etc.)

That is not that high of a value. Gallstones can make your liver enzymes go up but usually happens after the gallbladder is really pissed off (and you would know that and be in severe pain).

You might want to ask to have them rechecked and see where you are at. Might have gone down by now.

25 years of working in the lab.....they can drop by as much as 40 points a day. Just FYI don't freak out yet! But STAY away from motrin, ibuprophen, alcohol until you have them repeated.

Woops forgot to put here.....ALT and AST DO NOT GO UP FROM JUST HAVING A FATTY LIVER!!! I weighed in at 230 at 5'1" and had perfect liver enzymes.

Gallstones, hepatitis, alcoholism, etc are disease states and make your liver enzymes go up. Fat surrounding the liver does not make your liver enzymes high. I did liver enzymes on a guy that was 500+ lbs - they were NORMAL! Hope this helps.