OBSTRUCTION FOLLOWING GASTROENTEROSTOMY OR SUBTOTAL RESECTION OF THE STOMACH

Abstract

Obstruction is a major and grave complication of gastric surgical procedures. Always serious and frequently calamitous, it ranks in importance second only to marginal ulcer and its sequelae. It is difficult to state with what frequency this complication occurs, for in contrast to the early days of surgery, the complication is today passed off as occasional, and few surgeons have recorded and published their figures. That the incidence is more than "occasional" is evidenced by the continuous shift in choice of procedures from one type of operation to another in an endeavor to avoid the grave consequences of its occurrence. Indeed, many surgeons at the moment have reverted to unions of the antecolic type,¹ and there is an increasing tendency toward more radical measures, with resection of more or less of the stomach with or without enteroanastomosis. However, all surgeons are compelled at times to resort to gastroenterostomy of