Abstract
Background
Bariatric surgery has gained wide acceptance as treatment for severe obesity and is associated with decreased overall mortality. The aims of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of anemia long term after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and to search for factors predicting anemia.
Methods
All 745 patients who underwent RYGB between 1993 and 2003 at either Örebro or Uppsala University Hospital and who were living in Sweden were invited to participate by providing a fasting blood sample and completing a questionnaire about their health status. Full blood count, serum iron, transferrin, vitamin B12, and folic acid were determined.
Results
Follow-up was completed in 431 patients (58 %) with mean age 51.3 ± 10 years. Of all patients, 27 % had anemia postoperatively and related deficiencies; iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12 were seen in 20, 12, and 2 %, respectively. There was no correlation between anemia and sex, follow-up time, 25-OH vitamin D level, and preoperative or postoperative BMI. An inverse correlation was found between anemia and regular medical checkups concerning gastric bypass surgery.
Conclusion
Twenty-seven percent of patients had anemia more than 10 years after RYGB. Anemia does not seem to progress with time and was less common in patients with regular medical checkups. Thus, improved long-term follow-up is needed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Felicity Svensson, MD, Anne Breikert, research nurse and Ing-Marie Carlsson, research assistant, for their invaluable assistance with this study.
Funding
This work was supported by the Örebro County Council and the Uppsala-Örebro Regional Research Council (RFR-32261).
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Statement of Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Statement of Human and Animal Rights
All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and regional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Karefylakis, C., Näslund, I., Edholm, D. et al. Prevalence of Anemia and Related Deficiencies 10 Years After Gastric Bypass—a Retrospective Study. OBES SURG 25, 1019–1023 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-014-1500-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-014-1500-y