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Possible Folate Deficiency With Postsurgical Infection
Author(s) -
Stolzenberg Rachael
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
nutrition in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1941-2452
pISSN - 0884-5336
DOI - 10.1177/0115426594009006247
Subject(s) - medicine , pallor , diarrhea , weight loss , malaise , pediatrics , scurvy , surgery , obesity , vitamin c
A 51‐year‐old obese woman was transferred to our hospital for management of a complicated laparoscopic cholecystectomy accompanied by fever and malaise. A liver abscess was discovered. On postoperative day 52 it was noted that the patient's tongue was magenta and sore and that she had altered taste, pallor, severe weight loss, diarrhea, and poor appetite and mood. A dermatology consult suggested that her tongue abnormalities were most likely nutrition‐related, and a hematologic blood smear was suggestive of folate deficiency. Premorbidly, the patient had consumed a diet chronically low in folate and had received estrogen therapy for 15 years. Throughout the patient's hospitalization, she had bouts of fever and received numerous antibiotics. Within a month of initiating nutrition support and vitamin/ mineral supplements, her nutritional status improved dramatically. This patient's poor diet, long‐term estrogen use, surgical stress, infection, and lack of early nutrition support may have contributed to her possible folate deficiency and her prolonged hospital stay.