There are no known contraindications from a weight-loss surgical perspective to prevent a post-surgical patient from getting the COVID vaccines.

A patient who has had a Duodenal Switch, Lap Sleeve Gastrectomy, RNY Gastric Bypass, or revisions to Weight Loss Surgery should have the COVID vaccine. The vaccination should be avoided for a few weeks after surgery. For other possible contraindications, please consult your PCP.

Here is a summary of the vaccines and the details of each one approved as of the publication date.

 

 

 

Written By: Maria Vardapetyan, Eric Baghdasaryan, Osheen Abnous

Vitamins are chemicals that facilitate many processes in the human body such as blood clot formation, good vision, fight infections etc. There are two classes of vitamins. Water soluble vitamins and fat soluble vitamins. Water soluble vitamins dissolve in water. This makes it possible for them to be absorbed through all mucous membranes. Fat soluble vitamins on the other hand do not dissolve or pass through mucous membranes. Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed in the intestine along with fats in the diet. These vitamins have the ability to be stored in the fat tissues of the human body. Water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body and have to be taken in daily with the food and dietary supplements. Solubility of a vitamin is not a function of its physical state. There are fat soluble vitamins that have a liquid form and almost all of the water soluble vitamins come in form of pills or powders.

In this article, we are going to focus on fat soluble vitamins. They are all complex molecules made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in different arrangements (see figures 1, 2, 3 and 4). These fat soluble vitamins are vitamin A, D, E and K.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A has a major role in vision, immune function, cell growth, and maintenance of organs such as heart, kidneys, lungs, etc. It plays a pivotal role in the health of our eyes, specifically the retina¹. Rhodopsin protein, a major protein that has the leading role in the process of vision, is found in the retina where it allows us to perceive light. This protein requires vitamin A to function properly. Without vitamin A, rhodopsin cannot sense light and thus cannot initiate the process by which vision occurs.

 

Figure 1: Chemical structure of Vitamin A molecule

 

Vitamin D

Vitamin D regulates different chemical reactions that are associated with bones, muscles, and the immune system. The simplified way it does this regulation is it helps absorb calcium from dietary nutrients which in turn strengthens the bones, helps neurons exchange signals to move muscles and helps the immune system to fight against viruses and bacteria². 

Figure 2: Chemical structure of Vitamin D molecule

Vitamin E

Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant. Antioxidants are naturally occurring chemicals that neutralize toxic byproducts of many chemical reactions in the human body. When food is consumed and digested, the human body converts it into energy. As a result of metabolism free radicals (toxic byproducts) are formed and are neutralized with the help of vitamin E. In addition, free radicals are also in the environment. Furthermore, vitamin E stimulates the immune system to fight against bacteria and viruses³.

Figure 3: Chemical structure of Vitamin E molecule

Vitamin K

Vitamin K can be obtained from food and dietary supplements. There are two forms of vitamin K: phylloquinone (Vitamin K₁), which is found in spinach, kale and other greens and menaquinone-4 (Vitamin K₂), which is found in animal products. Vitamin K₁ is involved in blood clotting, and Vitamin K₂ is involved in bone tissue building. Vitamin K₁ is the main Vitamin K in human diet (75-90% of all vitamin K consumed), however, it is poorly absorbed in the body^4,5. 

Figure 4: Chemical structures of Vitamin K₁ and K₂ molecules

Absorption of fat soluble vitamins

Polarity describes the inherent charge(positive or negative) or lack of charge for any given substance or molecule.  Molecules that are charged are referred to as “polar”, while those that lack charge are “nonpolar”. When discussing solubility, it is important to remember the phrase “like dissolves like”. That means polar (charged) substances like to interact with a polar environment like water, since water contains a slight negative charge. Hence, charged substances are water-soluble. Nonpolar substances on the other hand readily interact with nonpolar environments such as fat, which contains no charge. Therefore, molecules that lack a charge such as vitamins A, D, E, and K are referred to as fat soluble. 

 

Due to their water fearing nature, these fat soluble vitamins cannot simply be absorbed directly into the bloodstream (which is mostly water) like the sugars and amino acids in our diet. As their name suggests, these fat soluble vitamins like to be embedded in fatty droplets, which facilitate their absorption in the following way. Fat soluble vitamins group together with other fat molecules to form fatty droplets, effectively reducing the amount of interaction with the watery environment of the intestines. Therefore, without an adequate amount of fat in your diet, your body is unable to effectively absorb these fat-soluble vitamins. This may be true in an intact anatomy, however, post weight loss surgical patients can not increase their fat soluble vitamin levels by increasing their fat intake. This is due to the fact that a high fat diet causes excessive bowel movement which in turn washes away any vitamins taken by mouth. DS limits fat absorption (thus the great weight loss) which can cause vitamin A and D deficiency that can not be easily corrected with oral supplementation.

As mentioned before, fat soluble vitamins are hydrophobic and nonpolar, which means they are also fat loving or lipophilic. Excess fat soluble vitamins can be stored in the liver and fat tissue. Therefore, these vitamins do not need to be eaten every single day since stores of these vitamins can sustain a person for some time. It may take several weeks or months for our body to deplete these stores of fat soluble vitamins which is why it generally takes a longer amount of time for fat soluble vitamin deficiencies to manifest themselves. The ability to store these fat soluble vitamins in tissues can also lead to vitamin toxicity – marked by an excess of vitamin stores in our body. 

Clinical manifestations of A, D, E, K deficiency

Vitamin	Clinical Deficiency manifestations
Vitamin A	Vision Problems Night blindness  Dryness of the eye
Vitamin D	Softening and weakening of the bones Decreased bone formation  Bone shape distortion Bowed legs (generally in children) Hypocalcemia
Vitamin E	Damage to red blood cells  Tissue/organ damage due to inability to supply enough blood Vision problems Nervous tissue malfunction
Vitamin K1	Excessive bruising Increased bleeding time Small blood clots under nails Increased bleeding in mucous membrane
Vitamin K2	Weak bones Increased plaque deposits along gumline Arterial calcification

 

 

References

1. Office of Dietary Supplements – Vitamin A. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/#. Accessed April 26, 2020.

2. Office of Dietary Supplements – Vitamin D. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-Consumer/. Accessed April 26, 2020.

3. Office of Dietary Supplements – Vitamin E. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminE-Consumer/. Accessed April 26, 2020.

4. Vitamin K. The Nutrition Source. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamin-k/. Published July 2, 2019. Accessed April 26, 2020.

5. Beulens JWJ, Booth SL, van den Heuvel EGHM, Stoecklin E, Baka A, Vermeer C. The role of menaquinones (vitamin K₂) in human health. The British journal of nutrition. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23590754. Published October 2013. Accessed April 26, 2020.

The scientific literature is riddled with evidence pointing to the benefit of early metabolic surgery as a superior treatment, remission and possible cure option for diabetes.  Unfortunately, the medical education, pharmaceutical companies, primary care healthcare delivery systems and third party payers (health insurance companies) have not caught up with the published data. The American Diabetes Association has changed their guidelines to reflected the benefit for combating diabetes with weight loss surgery.

There is ample evidence of the superior outcome of surgery as a treatment option for diabetes when compared to medical managment. Cummings et.al, in a published article in Diabetes Care, showed sustained stabilization of the Hemoglobin A1C six years after surgery. In contrast, there was no significant changes noted in the non-surgical group.

 

 

Jans et.al. , in November of 2019 showed that the patients who had NOT been on Insulin,  and had metabolic surgery had the highest long term success for resolution and remission of the diabetes. This identifies that having a patient be proactive in their care by having metabolic surgery improves success rates.

 

The exact mechanism by which the diabetes is resolved is unclear. The weight loss may play a role. There are numerous hormones and neuroendocrine modulators which control the complex metabolic pathways. Batterham et.al., in Diabetes Care (2016),  published a summary overview of the possible mechanism involved in diabetes improvement following metabolic surgery.

 

 

There are a number of overlapping and sequential layers for possible reasons why diabetes resolves after weight loss/metabolic surgery. These may be directly related to surgery and the reduction of the calorie intake or absorption. It may also involve the neuroendocrine modulators.

 

What can be said definitively is that early surgical intervention is best and most likely the only permanent solution to type II diabetic resolution. There is no medical justification in not considering metabolic surgery in diabetic patients who may also have difficulty with meaning a BMI< 35.

Weight loss surgical procedures, in one form or another, achieve the desired effect of weight loss by altering absorption of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. This results in decreased total absorption of required calories.

An unintended consequence is the altered absorption of medications. Frequently I am asked about the specific medication. Usually the answer is vague since the information is limited on specific medications. If the desired effect is not achieved, then it is probably  not being absorbed well. Specially, if the same dose of the same medication working well before surgery.

There is a summary article about the Theoretical absorption pattern of different weight loss surgical procedures.

It’s important to understand Vitamin D metabolism and deficiency potential following weight loss surgery Vitamins after DS need to be followed via laboratory blood studies. There are basic vitamin needs but individual needs should be based on medical history, genetics, alimentary limb length, common channel length and other surgical and physiologic determinations. Vitamins after DS are a life long commitment as well as protein needs and hydration. Duodenal Switch is a malabsorptive procedure which requires at least yearly laboratory blood studies, daily vitamins/minerals, daily high protein and daily hydration intake. There is not an all in one vitamin that is adequate for a DS patient or tailored to your individual needs. (example: you may need more Vitamin D and less Vitamin A if you are taking a all-in-one vitamin you can’t get more of one and less of another vitamin)

DS patients are recommended to take Dry forms (water miscible form) of Vitamin A, D3, E, K due to the fat malabsorption after DS. Dry formulations by Biotech are processed so they can be absorbed by a water soluble method after the DS procedure. Vitamin D seems to be the vitamin that can become deficient the easiest, followed by Vitamin A. Take these vitamins away from dietary fat.

In some cases, patients may need injectable Vitamin A or D to improve vitamin levels.

Click the links to view the information below and within the comments of this file:
Vitamin D3 50 by Biotech:  Amazon
directly from BioTech:

Many DS surgeon’s do not recommend Children’s vitamins or chewable vitamins unless there is a specific reason or need for them.
DS Surgeon Blog on Vitamin D:
Webinar on Vitamin D metabolism:
Medications that effect Bone health:
This does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or prescribing. It is simply a compiled list of gathered information. If you are in doubt or have questions please contact your medical healthcare professional.

“…What is the length of my common channel” is probably one of the frequently asked questions about the duodenal switch operation in the office. This usually comes up at the initial consult when patients repost credible sources such as Dr. Google and Dr. Facebook for patient with different bowel length have done well or not so after duodenal switch operation. Dr. Hess described the Duodenal Switch by using total bowel length measurements and creating the common channel as a percentage of the total small bowel length.  However, it seems that this is being done less and less.

This leads to my explanation that is on the website

Hess calculator : Bowel Length Calculator

How the actual measurements matters: Bowel length video link

In 2019, Bekheit et.al published a very interesting study comparing total small bowel length (TSBL) to a number of variables such as height, weight, sex and BMI. They identified a few loose correlations. Male patient have longer TBSL than females. There was correlation between TSBL and height stronger in males than females but not statistically significant.

In Conclusion they reported ” Despite statistical significance of the correlation between the TSBL and the height and weight of the included participants, the correlation seems to have no clinical meaning since the effect size is negligible. ”

As I have previously discussed this  Making the common and alimentary length standard for every duodenal switch patient will make some loose too much and other not enough weight.

Figure 1 shows TSBL on the horizontal axis, and height, weight, BMI and Age on the vertical axis. For the most part what they all show is that one can not predict how long a patients bowel is by any of the measures that we take in the office as a part of the routine exam.

This raises, the concerns  that I had raised previously. How could two similar patients who have the same weight, age, sex and BMI have the same surgery and expect the same result if one of them has TSBL of 400 cm and the other one 800cm?

If both of the patients get the same “cookie cutter” duodenal switch with the same lengths, then the patient with TSBL of 400 will have much longer common channel if the surgeon does not customize the length of the bowel. This is an example of many patients whom we have revised over the years where they had a duodenal switch done with the “standard” 125cm common channel and when we measured the total length the patient had 500 cm TSBL.

Additional Links here.

As I was looking over old archives, I came across the following pictures that were taken years ago. These were photographs taken to demonstrate the technique for the construction of the anastomosis of the biliopancreatic channel and alimentary channel of the Duodenal Switch.

The steps of doing the stapled anastomosis of the Duodenal Switch is generally unchanged during the laparoscopic approach to the procedure.

The stitches are placed to secure the bowel together. Two small openings are made in each limb of the bowel to be stapled together (the biliopancreatic limb on the  bottom and the alimentary on the top of the image).

It is important to also align the bowel in the same peristalsis direction. This means that the contraction and the relaxation motion of the bowel should all point in the same direction. This should reduce the risk of complications such as intussusception.

When the stapler is fired in opposite direction, a very wide anastomosis is created.

 

Once the anastomosis is created, then the last staple is used to close the opening that was made. This staple line is perpendicular to the direction of the anastomosis to avoid making the opening narrow.

We originally published this technique in 2003 on Obesity Surgery Journal.

There are cases of deficiencies of trace elements described after weight loss surgical procedures. Copper as a trace element plays a number of roles in out body. It is uncommon. As a result in most cases it is corrected with oral supplementation. Copper deficiency after weight loss surgery has been described and seen more freuquently than general population. In refractory cases, patient may need to have copper in form of IV infusion to normalize the levels. This will require coordination with a hematologist, an infusion centers, and a pharmacists.

Complete blood work is needed before recommendation for dosing can be made and specific supplementation regiment is formulated. It’s important to look at all of the lab values, the patients health status, diet, supplements, and medications when evaluating a deficiency issue.

Past blog post regarding Copper Information

Example of laboratory studies needed.