Efficacy of Intragastric Balloons in the Markers of Metabolic Dysfunction-associated Fatty Liver Disease: Results from Meta-analyses

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, now renamed metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), is common in obese patients. Intragastric balloon (IGB), an obesity management tool with low complication risk, might be used in MAFLD treatment but there is still unexplained heterogeneity in results across studies. METHODS: We conducted a systematic search of 152 citations published up to September 2020. Meta-analyses, stratified analyses, and meta-regression were performed to evaluate the efficacy of IGB on homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), and to identify patients most appropriate for IGB therapy. RESULTS: Thirteen observational studies and one randomized controlled trial met the inclusion criteria (624 participants in total). In the overall estimate, IGB therapy significantly improved the serum markers change from baseline to follow-up [HOMA-IR: 1.56, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.16–1.95; ALT: 11.53 U/L, 95% CI=7.10–15.96; AST: 6.79 U/L, 95% CI=1.69–11.90; GGT: 10.54 U/L, 95% CI=6.32–14.75]. In the stratified analysis, there were trends among participants with advanced age having less change in HOMA-IR (1.07 vs. 1.82). The improvement of insulin resistance and liver biochemistries with swallowable IGB therapy was no worse than that with endoscopic IGB. Multivariate meta-regression analyses showed that greater HOMA-IR loss was predicted by younger age (p=0.0107). Furthermore, effectiveness on ALT and GGT was predicted by basal ALT (p=0.0004) and GGT (p=0.0026), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: IGB is effective among the serum markers of MAFLD. Younger patients had a greater decrease of HOMA-IR after IGB therapy.