Neuropathy caused by Gastric Bypass Surgery
October 20th, 2007
I receive the other day an email from Ken who said that after a few years from gastric bypass surgery, his Mom is experiencing some serious nerve pain in her legs and feet. She made a gastric bypass surgery which caused her Neuropathy and she’s unable to walk. He wrote an article about his Mom’s post gastric bypass neuropathy and he asks for a little help to get the attention of Doctor Russel L. Chin who might be able to help her. Dr. Chin wrote in 2005 a report called Neuropathy and the Gastrointestinal System. I quote from this report:
Neuropathy related to the gastrointestinal system has most commonly been recognized to result from nutritional deficiencies. These deficiencies could be due to malnutrition (e.g. alcoholism) or a reduced absorptive surface as a result of physical alteration (e.g. surgical resection/bypass) or intestinal wall infiltration (e.g. Crohn’s disease).
Gastric surgery for weight loss, malignancy, or ulcers is an obvious potential cause for malabsorption or limited absorption resulting in nutritional deficiency-related neuropathies. For patients with neuropathy following gastric surgery who lack clear evidence of malnutrition, the disease mechanism has yet to be determined.
There are many complications following the gastric bypass surgery. And some of them are neurological complications:
Neurologic complications following BS are reported to occur in 0.08-16% of patients according to a review of 18 surgical series reported between 1976-2004. A 4% neurological complication rate was reported in a single prospective study. In a review of 96 patients (50 case reports), the most common presentations were peripheral neuropathy in 60 (62%) and encephalopathy in 30 (31%). Of the 60 patients with PN, 40 (67%) had a polyneuropathy and 18 (30%) had mononeuropathies, which included 17 with meralgia paresthetica and one with foot drop (Koffman et al, 2005).
I found also an article wrote by O. Maryniak, Severe peripheral neuropathy following gastric bypass surgery for morbid obesity. The full report is available online but you need to subscribe to this periodical. I quote this article’s abstract:
Severe weakness in the limbs developed in a young woman 3 1/2 months after successful gastric bypass surgery for morbid obesity. Electromyography confirmed the clinical impression of generalized axonal polyneuropathy. Vitamin B replacement therapy was started. The gastric bypass was not reversed, and the patient continued to lose weight while undergoing rehabilitation. After 10 months she had almost fully recovered. Her total weight loss was 76 kg. Neuropathy is an uncommon but serious complication of semistarvation that should be preventable by routine administration of vitamin B complex.
Well, I don’t know if my article helps Ken very much, but I just try to do this and I hope his Mom will getting better. I’d like to know if Dr. Chin can help Ken’s Mom, and if he does, I ask Ken to write about this, to help other people who may have the same problem.
Much health to your Mom!
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Entry Filed under: Health
Gastric bypass surgery and any other surgeries always have its own complications. Actually, patients are reminded of these prior to operation. Even weight loss surgeries does not guarantee a complete success.
Have you heard of Julianne Kennedy’s site? Well, she has done a lot of research on weight loss-related surgeries and now she is giving away a free report. I have my own copy and I was amazed by the facts connected to these kind of surgeries.
If you are interested, go to this site: http://www.weight-loss-surgery-secrets.com/controversial/free_wls_report.htm. Don’t worry, you are not required to click on ads or do anything stupid. This is for free and I want to share it to you guys.
I had gastric bypass in 1991 and about a year ago I have had trouble being constipated, now they have found I have blood in my stool. For the past 4 years I have lost strenght in my arms and legs and my feet always hurt. I also have a shortness of breath but I didnt know that this all could be coming from my bypass. : I am going to an upper GI test done the 11-20 and I will know somthing then. Please let me know if there are anyone else out there who is dealing with the same thing.
Thank YOu
5-5-2011 by nhigh30@yahoo.com I am so very very sick from my surgery. I had it about 10 yrs ago and recently read that the life expectancy after surgery is approx 10 years. I am anemic, I have to inject B12 so that my body will make hemoglobin without hemoglobin you die from a heart attack but really it would be from the surgery. On top of this my body won’t absorb vitamins so I take vitamins a -z daily but still have no benefit due to the malabsorption issue. I have constant pain in my joints, muscles and bones. It feels like I’m being crushed. It is excruciating! At Mayo clinic I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and I was told that all these problems were due to the gastric bypass Y surgery. I found out this past week that I am having seizures.I feel I was lied to they told me that less than 1% of all Weight Loss Surgery patients would have malabsorption of vitamins but the more I read, it seems like many more than one percent are suffering just like me.
Does anyone have diabetic foot neuropathy? my husband has it and tried Lyrica for a while but pain is back?
my husband was diagnosed with diabetic foot neuropothy about a year ago. has been tested for everything they could think of and found no reason for the pain. they put him on vicotin and lyrica for about 2 mos. it worked but now the pain is getting worse again. trying to find someone who is going through the same and if they have found any relief.
Gastric bypass is certainly a last resort for most people. And, as evidenced by the article and comments, there are consequences. When I worked at a call center, one of the guys came back to work after his surgery and was able to perform the work just fine. However, he had terrible problem with gas. They tried to cover it with air fresheners but his co-workers still complained. Then they fan to blow the smell away. But co-workers still complained. Finally they moved the guy far away from everyone else. That proved to be the best solution.
I had gastric bypass in 2001. I was told of the high death rate, and some complications. However, I was never told that I could develope neuropathy in my feet and hands. I had trouble with my feet starting in 2007. It took me until 2009 before anyone diagnosed it as neuropathy due to gastric bypass, and then it was a neurologist who diagnosed it. He actually acted as though I should have known this, and kept asking me if the surgery was worth all of this while he stuck needleds into my legs and feet testing to see how bad it was. I have not gone back to this doctor, and am now very skitish about going to another neurologist. I have also recently been diagnosed with severe Fibromyalgia.
I had gastric bypass in 2002. I started getting numbness and tingling in both hands in early 2007 and was told it was probably carpel tunnel. Then in the Fall of 2007 I started falling down and the doctor said I was just clumsy. Within a couple of months (after I had broken a foot and sprained an ankle from falling) my toes started to go numb, then my feet, and the neurologist said there was nothing wrong. Within 6 months I was numb up to the knee and saw Dr Russell Chin in NY who ran an EMG and said he confirmed the symptoms but did not know why I was experiencing this. (although I later discovered his 2005 article on gastric bypass and neuropathy). He offered me no answers and sent me on my way, and within 6 months I was numb up to the waist and in a wheelchair unable to walk or maintain balance. My doctor prescribed Neurotin (Gabapentin) in 2009 but I am now in terrible pain and up to large doses. I was basically told to stop my whining and just live with it, so I was drinking very heavily to escape it, but now know that was not the answer. So hear I sit. My legs “buzz” so terrible and jump involuntarily that even the Gabapentin is not enough sometimes. I was only 47 when all this started and am too young for this. I was also asked by many doctors if the surgery was worth it, what an awful thing to say to a person who is suffering. Do you ask a person who smoked their whole life and is in the hospital dying and suffering from lung cancer “was it worth it, all that smoking?” I’m sure given the choice to do it all over again….but you can probably ask anyone who is dying if they would do anything differently wold they and you can pretty much bet on the answer. Is there any new treatment you know of, or anything else I can do? I am trying so hard to be strong for my family but I am at wit’s end. Please help.
hi,
what are the symptoms of a neuropathy?
do this happen if you are in a surgery?or does it happen even if you dont experience the bypass surgery in gastric?
Thanks for the info, it’s beneficial.
Your blog is nice.