Objective: Severe obesity represents a serious threat for public health for prevalence, incidence and economic burden. When changes in lifestyle, psychological behavioural therapies or specific medicines are not able to improve the clinical picture of patients, bariatric surgery represents the most effective treatment. However, these patients need a careful nutritional surveillance because they are exposed to the risk of nutritional deficit. Supplementations with multivitamin formulations, calcium citrate and vitamin D were performed by nutritionist in the past, to correct the deficits but the results were often ineffective. Recently, several foods for special medical purposes (FSMP) were developed for these cases. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of FSMP administration to avoid micronutrients deficiencies, particularly vitamin D and Iron, in post-surgery phase to a sample of patients undergoing bariatric surgery.

Patients and Methods: 52 patients undergoing bariatric surgery were enrolled. For each patient, starting from the third day after surgery, one sachet for day of FSMP, containing Vitamins (A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B8, B9, B12, C, D, E, K) and minerals (Iron, zinc, copper, selenium) was administered for three months. Anthropometric parameters, complete blood count, blood levels of folic acid, calcium, parathormone, ferritin, iron serum, transferrin, vitamin B12 and vitamin D were recorded, both at the time of surgery (T0) and after 3 months of FSMP intake (T1).

Results: All patients have shown a significative weight loss 3 months after surgery (T1), with reduction of BMI, body fat, white blood cell count, platelets and transferrin. Moreover, at T1, increases of medium corpuscular volume (MCV), iron and vitamin D were observed.

Conclusions: Study results highlight that the administration of this FSMP for three months in post-surgery phase of patients underwent bariatric surgery is useful to avoid micronutrients deficiencies, favouring a better adherence to the treatment.