Vitamin B12 deficiency after total gastrectomy for gastric cancer, prevalence, and symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: Nutrient deficiency is one of the common complications in patients who undergo gastrectomy, especially those vitamins and minerals absorbed in the stomach or by substances in the gastric juice, such as vitamin B12. Hence, this systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted for the first time to investigate the prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency and its symptoms in gastric cancer (GC) patients who underwent gastrectomy.

Method: PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science databases were searched to find related studies.