Don’t Forget to Take Your Vitamins! A Case of Gastric Bypass Gone Wrong

Ariel D. Sindel^1, , Gilad Shapira², Chelsea Olson¹ and Derick Jenkins¹

¹Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University Health Systems, Richmond, VA

²Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Albama Medical Center, Mobile, AL

Cite this paper

Ariel D. Sindel, Gilad Shapira, Chelsea Olson and Derick Jenkins. Don’t Forget to Take Your Vitamins! A Case of Gastric Bypass Gone Wrong. American Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2017; 5(5):119-121. doi: 10.12691/AJMCR-5-5-4

Abstract

Gastric bypass, an increasingly common operation performed due to rises in obesity has greatly improved patient’s quality of life along with health. This case report presents a 62 year old female three decades post Roux-En-Y gastric bypass who came in with shortness of breath. Knowing the malabsorptive nature of her weight-loss surgery we suspected a nutritional deficiency and performed a full panel. Though we found multiple vitamin abnormalities, we were most concerned about her deficient thiamine levels. The complete workup led to a diagnosis of wet beriberi, a condition commonly seen in underdeveloped nations. With the rise in weight loss surgery, understanding and having a high clinical suspicion for such patients is necessary.

Keywords

Bariatrics, nutrition, beriberi, thiamine, vitamin, deficiency

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

[1]	Aron-Wisnewsky J, Verger EO, Bounaix C, Dao MC, Oppert J-M, Bouillot J-L, et al. Nutritional and Protein Deficiencies in the Short Term following Both Gastric Bypass and Gastric Banding. PLoS One. 2016; 11(2): e0149588.
[2]	Carrodeguas L, Kaidar-Person O, Szomstein S, Antozzi P, Rosenthal R. Preoperative thiamine deficiency in obese population undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgery. Surg Obes Relat Dis Off J Am Soc Bariatr Surg. 2005. December; 1(6): 517-22; discussion 522.
[3]	Ledoux S, Msika S, Moussa F, Larger E. Comparison of nutritional consequences of conventional therapy of obesity, adjustable gastric banding, and gastric bypass. Obes Surg. 2006 Aug; 16(8):1041-9.
[4]	Sawaya RA, Jaffe J, Friedenberg L, Friedenberg FK. Vitamin, mineral, and drug absorption following bariatric surgery. Curr Drug Metab. 2012; 13: 1345-55.
[5]	Sturm R., Hattori A. Morbid obesity rates continue to rise rapidly in the United States. Int. J. Obes. 2013 Jun; 37(6): 889-891.