Bariatric surgery’s efficacy in morbid obesity therapy has been proven; but post-operational zinc deficiency is a problematic issue as its essential role in post-operational recovery of patients.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the rate of zinc deficiency in Iranian morbidly obese candidates for bariatric surgery.

We assessed zinc status in 996 morbidly obese subjects (BMI > 40 kg/m² or BMI > 35 kg/m² with any comorbidities) (841 females, 155 males) who were candidate for bariatric surgery. Comorbidities related to obesity including dyslipidemia, abnormal fasting glucose, hypertension and type-2 diabetes (T2D) were evaluated. Also we checked albumin and SGPT as markers of liver function. Data analyzed by SPSS.

Zinc deficiency was found in 13.6% of patients. Zinc levels had an inverse and significant association with age (P Value = 0.016). Although greater levels of circulating zinc were observed in patients with higher BMI, there were no significant correlation between zinc deficiency and adiposity. Dyslipidemia was found to be the most prevalent comorbidity in this population.

These results show a high prevalence of zinc deficiency in morbidly obese subjects. Thus, we suggest the evaluation of the zinc status in patients undergoing bariatric surgery and treatment of zinc deficiency before doing the surgery.