CHANGES IN THE BLOOD AFTER PARTIAL GASTRECTOMY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO VITAMIN B ^

PABTIAL gastrectomy is often followed by anaemia. In different series of patients the incidence of anaemia has varied from 4 per cent. (Bjurneboe, Faber, Mikkelsen, and Tobiassen, 1951) to 63 per cent. (Wallensten, 1954), depending on the criterion of anaemia which has been adopted, the proportion of men and women in the series, the indication for operation, the type of gastrointestinal anastomosis, the interval of time between operation and blood examination, and the thoroughness with which anaemia was searched for. The anaemia most frequently recognized is iron-deficiency anaemia, as judged by the appearance of the peripheral blood, the level of serum iron, the histology of the bone marrow, and the response to treatment with iron (Lyngar, 1950). Baird, Blackburn, and Wilson (1959), in a recent investigation of the blood counts of 341 patients after partial gastrectomy, detected anaemia in 41. Anaemia was defined as a haemoglobin level below 13-3 g. per 100 ml. in men and 10-4 g. per 100 ml. in women. The blood findings in their patients sug-gested that iron deficiency was the cause of the anaemia in all but one. Fro