| Weight loss surgery can result in serious illness - new study |
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| Friday, 16 March 2007 | |
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The researchers link the development of the syndrome to patients ceasing to take the vitamin supplements prescribed after surgery, or in cases where the frequency of vomiting was such that the vitamins were not being absorbed. The syndrome usually strikes between one and three months after the operation, although in the case of this study, one of the participants developed the syndrome 18 months after surgery. In addition to the usual symptoms of Wernicke encephalopathy, the 32 study participants had symptoms such as seizures, deafness, psychosis, muscle weakness and pain or numbness in the feet or hands. Sonal Singh, author of the report, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said: "When people who have had weight-loss surgery start experiencing any of these symptoms, they need to see a doctor right away. "Doctors should consider vitamin B1 deficiency and Wernicke encephalopathy when they see patients with these types of neurological complications after weight-loss surgery. If treated promptly, the outlook is usually good." Injections of vitamin B1 given to the patients were successful in reversing the condition of 13 of the 32 people in the study group. However, many continued to complain of reduced memory and physical energy, as well as co-ordination difficulties. Eight of them had various levels of dysfunction and one 33 year old woman died. "But interesting to our study, we found that these people also had other symptoms, like hearing loss, convulsions and tingling and numbness of the arms and legs -- symptoms that have not been previously described with Wernicke's," Singh said. |
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