Abstract
A 68-year-old man with short bowel syndrome maintained on parenteral nutrition for about 10 years showed various abnormal symptoms such as discoloration of the nail beds, visual disturbance, and numbness of the legs. He also mainifested macrocytic anemia. His blood levels of various trace minerals were normal except selenium which showed under 2.0μg/dl. Therefore he was diagnosed as developing selenium deficiency. The plasma selenium level increased 7.0μg/dl in 3months after intravenous supplementation of selenium. We recommended careful attention to selenium deficiency when a patient on long-term intravenous hyperalimentation presents various abnormal symptons.
