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©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 7, 2020; 26(25): 3528-3541
Published online Jul 7, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i25.3528
Published online Jul 7, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i25.3528
Management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the Middle East
Faisal M Sanai, Gastroenterology Unit, Department of Medicine, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah 21423, Saudi Arabia
Faisal Abaalkhail, Department of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh 11533, Saudi Arabia
Faisal Abaalkhail, Department of Liver Transplant, King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Dammam 32253, Saudi Arabia
Fuad Hasan, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Safat 13110, Kuwait
Muhammad Hamed Farooqi, Dubai Diabetes Center, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai 00000, United Arab Emirates
Nawal Al Nahdi, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Dubai Health Authority, Rashid hospital, Dubai 00000, United Arab Emirates
Zobair M Younossi, Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, Falls Church, VA 22042, United States
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper in terms of conception, literature review, drafting, critical revision, editing, and final approval for submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors received any fees for writing this manuscript. Medical writing assistance was funded by Gilead Sciences. No other conflict is declared.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zobair M Younossi, FAASLD, AGAF, FACG, FACP, MD, Chairman, Professor, Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, Betty and Guy Beatty Center for Integrated Research, Inova Health System, Claude Moore Health Education and Research Building 3300 Gallows Road, Falls Church, VA 22042, United States. zobair.younossi@inova.org
Received: March 5, 2020
Peer-review started: March 5, 2020
First decision: April 8, 2020
Revised: May 15, 2020
Accepted: June 10, 2020
Article in press: June 10, 2020
Published online: July 7, 2020
Processing time: 124 Days and 9.3 Hours
Peer-review started: March 5, 2020
First decision: April 8, 2020
Revised: May 15, 2020
Accepted: June 10, 2020
Article in press: June 10, 2020
Published online: July 7, 2020
Processing time: 124 Days and 9.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: With the rising prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in the Middle East, there is an unmet need of appropriate strategies to facilitate effective management at a regional level. Therefore, expert gastroenterologists, hepatologists, and endocrinologists from the region came together in three advisory board meetings that were conducted in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. Current local challenges in NAFLD screening and diagnosis, and the different available management options were discussed. This paper summarizes the discussions of the expert panel on the management of NAFLD/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and also presents an extensive literature review on the topic.