Brain functional connectivity differences between responders and non-responders to sleeve gastrectomy

Purpose To compare resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of obese patients responders or non-responders to sleeve gastrectomy (SG) with a group of obese patients with no past medical history of metabolic or bariatric surgery. Methods MR images were acquired at 1.5 Tesla. Resting-state fMRI data were analyzed with statistical significance threshold set at p < 0.05, family-wise error (FWE) corrected. Results Sixty-two subjects were enrolled: 20 controls (age range 25–64; 14 females), 24 responders (excess weight loss > 50%; age range 23–68; 17 females), and 18 non-responders to sleeve gastrectomy (SG) (excess weight loss < 50%; age range 23–67; 13 females). About within-network RSFC, responders showed significantly lower RSFC with respect to both controls and non-responders in the default mode and frontoparietal networks, positively correlating with psychological scores. Non-responders showed significantly higher ( p < 0.05, family-wise error (few) corrected) RSFC in regions of the lateral visual network as compared to controls. Regarding between-network RSFC, responders showed significantly higher anti-correlation between executive control and salience networks ( p < 0.05, FWE corrected) with respect to both controls and non-responders. Significant positive correlation (Spearman rho = 0.48, p = 0.0012) was found between % of excess weight loss and executive control-salience network RSFC. Conclusion There are differences in brain functional connectivity in either responders or non-responders patients to SG. The present results offer new insights into the neural correlates of outcome in patients who undergo SG and expand knowledge about neural mechanisms which may be related to surgical response.