METABOLIC STUDIES IN PATIENTS WITH CANCER OF THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT

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Abstract
It is common clinical experience that patients with gastric carcinoma sooner or later develop anemia. The nature of this anemia, however, is not uniform, and variations from the macrocytic hyperchromic to the microcytic hypochromic disorders have been described. Indeed, it is not unusual to find that even in the same person the anemia may change its characteristics from month to month. It is, of course, obvious that the existence of anemia preoperatively in these patients adds to the hazards of their operative and postoperative periods. There now is good evidence that anemia in patients submitted to prolonged surgical procedures may increase their tendency to shock states1 and their susceptibility to infections, aggravate their usual hypoproteinemia,2 impair wound healing and induce wound disruption.3 Although it is possible to repair this anemic state preoperatively by whole blood transfusions, this is only a transitory measure and its frequent repetition is