Gastric Bypass May Boost Blindness Risk

A boom in gastric bypass surgery could lead to an unwelcome trend: an increase in vitamin A deficiency among patients that raises their risk for vision loss.


So conclude U.S. researchers who studied the medical histories of patients who were nearly blind or had very poor eyesight but no family history of blindness.


The study, published in the current issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology, focused on three patients over age 65 who had been diagnosed with vitamin A deficiency. Each of the patients had also undergone major intestinal surgery in the last 20 to 35 years...more