Liposuction and Plastic Surgery Information - Weight loss surgery can lead to nerve damage

Weight loss surgery can lead to nerve damage - study

Thursday, 07 June 2007

A study conducted by researchers from the University of Arkansas shows that gastric bypass surgery, used to treat morbid obesity, can result in potentially disabling neurological complications, most likely caused by deficiencies in certain nutrients.

The study, led by Dr. Katalin Juhasz-Pocsine and colleagues from the University of Arkansas for Medical Science in Little Rock, says that symptoms can arise years after the gastric bypass surgery, possibly because affected patients may have sufficient stores of the nutrients in their body at the time of the surgery, and it can take years for these stores to be depleted.

Symptoms of the condition include hallucinations and the inability to walk, but in many cases, the condition can be reversed through medication.

"After resolution of the acute symptoms they are quite weak, and it takes around a year to recover.

Some are permanently disabled," said Dr. Juhasz-Pocsine. The more severe symptoms are those that take years to fully manifest themselves and affect the spinal cord, resulting in falling, extreme co-ordination and gait problems and, in some cases, spasticity.

The condition can be treated in most cases with restoration of thiamine, copper and vitamin B12, although symptoms tend to remain for months while treatment is ongoing. In certain cases, the symptoms remained permanent.

Dr. Juhasz-Pocsine recommends that patients for gastric bypass surgery should always be advised of the need to take mineral and vitamin supplements following surgery and to avoid severe and rapid weight loss.

"Many of our patients were not instructed to take vitamin supplements, and postoperative follow-up visits with medical nutritionists were not emphasized," she added.

Tags: bariatric, gastric band, weight loss,