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.