Total Gastric Resection in Children With the Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome

Abstract

IT HAS BEEN only ten years since Zollinger and Ellison first proposed that an ulcerogenic hormone might be elaborated from non-beta, islet cell tumors of the pancreas and result in an ulcer diathesis.²² Gregory was the first to extract a "gastrin-like" substance from these tumors⁹ and Sircus has now demonstrated a gastric secretogogue circulating in the plasma of a patient with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.²¹ Many surgeons are still reluctant to do a total gastrectomy in such patients despite the reported influence on survival.^6,12 More than 300 cases are now recorded, and of these, eight are children who have undergone gastric resection for ulcerogenic symptoms. The age of these children at the initial surgical procedure ranged from eight to fifteen years. All of the children experienced bleeding. Seven of the children had evidence of metastasis from islet cell tumors, and one child exhibited hyperplasia of the pancreatic