Following gastric resection a slightly reduced haemoglobin is common. The use of erythrocyte morphology as a screening test for deficient absorption of haematinics is unsatisfactory; false positive (42.8%) and false negative (41.6%) results are encountered too frequently to recommend its use. The elderly postgastrectomy patient with mild anaemia may have biochemical evidence of iron, folic acid, or vitamin B12 deficiency with normal erythrocyte morphology.