Nutritional Status of Bariatric Surgery Candidates.

Aliaa Al-Mutawa,Salman Alsabah,Alfred Anderson,Mohammad Al-Mutawa

doi:10.3390/nu10010067

Abstract

Obesity is a global epidemic affecting populations globally. Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for morbid obesity, and has increased dramatically. Bariatric surgery candidates frequently have pre-existing nutritional deficiencies that might exacerbate post-surgery. To provide better health care management pre- and post-bariatric surgery, it is imperative to establish the nutritional status of prospective patients before surgery. The aim of this study was to assess and provide baseline data on the nutritional status of bariatric candidates. A retrospective study was conducted on obese patients who underwent bariatric surgery from 2008 to 2015. The medical records of 1538 patients were reviewed for this study. Pre-operatively, the most commonly observed vitamin deficiencies were Vitamin D (76%) and Vitamin B12 (16%). Anemia and iron status parameters were low in a considerable number of patients before surgery, as follows: hemoglobin 20%, mean corpuscular volume (MCV) 48%, ferritin 28%, serum iron 51%, and transferrin saturation 60%. Albumin and transferrin were found to be low in 10% and 9% of the patients, respectively, prior to surgery. In addition to deficiencies, a great number of patients had hypervitaminosis pre-operatively. Excess levels of Vitamin B6 (24%) was the most remarkable. The findings in this study advocate a close monitoring and tailored supplementation pre- and post-bariatric surgery.

Highlights

Obesity is associated with low micronutrient levels
Nutritional parameters that were evaluated among the bariatric surgery candidates followed in this study were albumin, transferrin, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6, folate, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Red Blood Cell (RBC), hemoglobin, hematocrit, Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), ferritin, iron, and transferrin saturation
Data from this study showed that bariatric surgery candidates had pre-existing nutritional deficiencies, which included Vitamin D, iron, Vitamin B12, and protein

Summary

Introduction

Obesity is associated with low micronutrient levels. Obese individuals have excess energy stores, they are quite often not well nourished. Many obese subjects have already-existing nutritional deficiencies before bariatric procedures. These deficiencies commonly include iron, Vitamin B12 , thiamin, folate, and Vitamin D [1,2,3]. Screening and correction of micronutrient deficiencies preoperatively are crucial, as these deficiencies may be more exacerbated following bariatric procedures, leading to devastating conditions. While several studies have described nutrient status pre- and post-bariatric surgery, there are no publications in the literature that investigate nutritional status pre-surgery among Kuwaiti patients

Objectives

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Discussion

Conclusion