Journal
OBESITY
Volume 17, Issue 4, Pages 827-831Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1038/oby.2008.614
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NCATS NIH HHS [UL1 TR000454] Funding Source: Medline
- NCRR NIH HHS [K24 RR023356, K24 RR023356-02] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Copper is an essential cofactor in many enzymatic reactions vital to the normal function of the hematologic, vascular, skeletal, antioxidant, and neurologic systems. Copper deficiency in the United States is believed to be relatively rare but has been described in the setting of zinc supplementation, myelodysplastic syndrome, use of parenteral nutrition and chronic tube feeding, and in various malabsorptive syndromes, including following gastrectomy and gastric bypass surgery. Features of copper deficiency include hematologic abnormalities (anemia, neutropenia, and leukopenia) and myeloneuropathy; the latter is a rarer and often unrecognized complication of copper deficiency. We here describe two patients who presented with severe gait abnormalities and anemia combined with neutropenia several years after roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery for obesity who were found to be severely copper deficient. Intravenous copper repletion resulted in the rapid correction of hematologic indices; combined intravenous and oral copper supplementation and eventual oral copper supplements alone normalized serum copper levels in each patient, but resulted in only partial resolution of the neurologic deficits. This report serves to alert physicians of the association between RYGB procedures and subsequent copper deficiency in order to avoid diagnostic delays and to improve treatment outcomes.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available