Post bypass low white blood cell count

Had roux en y    4 years ago..since that time my white blood cell count has been pretty low...hematologist checked me out a year or so and said everything else seemed ok and thought there might be relationship between the surgery and the count.  has anyone ever had this issue?

[Elliot R Goodman, MD]

Well, I ran some more literature searches and the only link I could find for you is copper deficiency after gastric bypass causing low WBC count
Perhaps yr docs could check your serum copper level
Hope this helps

[Elliot R Goodman, MD]

No relationship between low white count and RNY

[DLH6890]

Dr. Goodman,

I feel your answer about WBC and gastric bypass is too brief to be accurate.  I had the bypass surgery 7 years ago.  Since then, my WBC's NEVER change.  They do not register infections of any kind which obviously makes "proving" it the medical staff virtually impossible.

In my case, December 2006, after 3 months of telling my doctor that I had an infection and them not believing me, I was ultimately rushed into ER surgery and was hospitalized for 18 days with an incision from hip bone to hip bone across my abdomen with a wound suction vac removing my body of the staph infection that had been missed for months because of doctors who rely solely on elevated WBC's to identify infections!!

Now, I am being tested for masses in my liver and small intestine and yet again, my WBC are completely normal.  Thankfully, I now have a doctor that listens to me rather than assuming she knows my body better than I do.

Perhaps some research should be done to determine if there is a correlation between the 2 before giving a rote answer.