Obesity surgery
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Many respectable guidelines recommend lifelong vitamin B12 injections for Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) patients in the absence of lack of consensus on the efficacy of oral route of prophylaxis and the appropriate doses needed for this purpose. The purpose of this review was to examine the published English language scientific literature in accordance with PRISMA principles to find out if orally given vitamin B12 is adequate for prophylactic purposes in RYGB patients and the appropriate dosages needed for this purpose if it is. ⋯ The review finds that oral supplementation doses of ≤ 15 μg vitamin B12 daily are inadequate for prophylaxis of vitamin B12 deficiency in adult RYGB patients but doses of 1000 μg vitamin B12 daily might be adequate. Future studies need to examine this and even higher oral doses for vitamin B12 supplementation for patients undergoing RYGB.