Nutrition
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Comparative Study
Mineral deficiency in patients who have undergone gastrectomy.
We investigated the nature of nutritional deficiencies that arose in gastrectomy patients by comparing mineral absorption in patients with total and subtotal gastrectomies before and after operation. ⋯ In the short term, gastrectomy does not seem to affect the levels of most minerals in the body. However, changes in sodium levels indicate that gastrectomy affects sodium absorbency in gastric cancer patients. Potassium levels increased significantly in patients who received total gastrectomies; this may also be an area that nutritional treatment should focus on.