Oxalosis and chronic renal failure after intestinal bypass

A 45-year-old man underwent a jejunoileal shunt procedure for obesity. Twenty months later he developed severe oxalosis and chronic renal failure, which required maintenance hemodialysis. The sequential observation of two biopsy specimens and the necropsy (over a span of 39 months) suggests that oxalate deposition caused tubular obstruction and destruction with subsequent atrophy of nephrons. This indicates that patients undergoing intestinal bypass are at risk for developing irreversible renal failure due to enteric hyperoxaluria.