Incidence of vitamin B12 deficiency in patients submitted to Fobi-Capella Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery.

BACKGROUND

Patients undergoing bariatric surgery may develop over time, some complications and anemia is an important one due to gastric resection, leading to iron, folic acid or vitamin B12 deficiency.

AIM: To determine the incidence of deficiency of vitamin B12 and other anthropometric and biochemical data comparing the preoperative and postoperative (six months) period in patients who underwent bariatric surgery with Fobi-Capella (Roux-en-Y) technique.

METHODS

Retrospective and descriptive analysis of 91 charts of patients who underwent surgery. It was collected personal information, date of surgery and pre-and postoperative (six months) values, weight loss, comorbidities, serum analysis of total cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, vitamin B12, hemoglobin and hematocrit. For statistical analysis, it was considered significance level of 5% (p<0.05).

RESULTS

It was found that there was a reduction in weight of 25,0% compared with the preoperative value and the average BMI was from 41,2±4,9 kg/m² to 30,7±3,9 kg/m². The most common co-morbidities were dyspnea (93,4%), spine alterations (61,5%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (57,1%) and sleep apnea (42,9%). Biochemical tests for cholesterol, triglycerides and blood glucose, presented positive effect, changing from 240,2±36,1 to 162,5±19,1, 215,7±78,1 to 101,0±21,3 and 178,7±55,0 to 96,8±15,3 (mg/dL), respectively. For vitamin B12, hemoglobin and hematocrit, there was no statistical difference in relation to pre and post-operative time; however, was seen a reduction in vitamin B12 in 43 patients (47,2%).

CONCLUSION

The deficiency of vitamin B12 after six months of surgery could not be observed; this fact can be attributed to the use of nutritional supplements or to the short follow-up time after surgery.