In performing complete gastrectomy the cardiac end of the stomach is brought down and fitted to the upper end of the divided duodenum, after removal of the stomach, which will usually be possible under favorable circumstances, but which exposes the patient to great risks of tearing apart reunited surfaces by undue tension.

Gastric Anastomosis.

—This consists in making an anastomotic opening between the stomach and the uppermost part of the jejunum, the duodenum proper being too bound down in its course to permit of its utilization for this purpose. Gastro-enterostomy, then, should be referred to as gastrojejunostomy. In brief, it consists in making an opening by which the stomach shall empty directly into the upper bowel, and while, for this purpose, one of the uppermost loops would theoretically suffice, it has been found that the shorter the loop, i. e., the portion between the duodenum proper and the upper part of the bowel used for this purpose, the better for the patient.

Gastrojejunostomy is, first of all, referred to as anterior or posterior, according to whether a loop of bowel be brought up in front of the omentum and around it, and attached to the anterior and exposed wall of the stomach, or whether the lesser peritoneal cavity be opened by perforating the omentum behind the colon and below the stomach, so that the posterior wall of the latter is found, drawn into the wound, and made accessible and utilized for the purpose. The anterior operation is the easier of performance, but the posterior is far preferable in most instances. Should it be found that the posterior wall of the stomach is far more involved in cancerous infiltration than the anterior, the anterior operation should be performed.

Simple as is the procedure in theory there are about it one or two complications which were not at first foreseen. Perhaps the most important of these is that bile emptied into the duodenum passes downward until it has an opportunity to escape through the opening directly into the stomach, usually in the direction of least resistance. This may then carry it where it is a most undesirable fluid, and prevent its passage onward into the intestine, where it is physiologically needed. This circulation of bile has been spoken of as the “vicious circle” and it is the formation of a vicious circle which has complicated not a few of the anastomotic stomach cases, and which has engaged the attention of not a few clinicians and operating surgeons.

The second objection is that the contact of stomach contents with the mucous membrane at a point below where the bowel is normally prepared for it, and before intestinal contents have been prepared by bile or materials alkalinized by this fluid, sometimes leads to the formation of ulcer just opposite the opening, and this has been referred to as peptic ulcer of the jejunum. This is a possible though not a frequent complication, but has added weight to the other considerations regarding the best way of performing anastomosis. Again, it has been feared that this anastomotic opening would contract in time, or sometimes completely close. This objection obtains especially with anastomosis, made with a Murphy button, or its equivalent, and can rarely be made against the ordinary suture methods. Again, if the opening in the intestine be made too long the intestine itself may be narrowed, for too much of the circumference of the bowel may be taken up in the formation of the anastomosis, and thus there will be mechanical obstruction with vicious circle.

“Vicious circle” produces symptoms which do not appear until the lapse of at least three days after the operation. If vomiting should persist and retain a bilious character it is to be feared that some complication of this kind has occurred. Under these circumstances when lavage is practised a large amount of fluid mixed with bile, perhaps blood, may be returned.

Much depends also on the exact location of the attachment of the intestinal loop to the stomach. Other difficulties arise from possible twisting of the loop of small intestine, or its strangulation by being entangled beneath the bridge of the jejunum, which is always made in every anastomosis. Again the small intestine may become incarcerated in an imperfectly closed opening made in the mesocolon. It will thus be seen that the posterior method has disadvantages which need to be fully appreciated. On the other hand it has this great advantage, that it permits of drainage or emptying of the stomach into the jejunum by gravity, in almost any position which the patient would ordinarily assume, either sitting or lying. Many operators have devised methods of preventing formation of the vicious circle.

[Fig. 554] illustrates how valves may form which there is no sure method of preventing. [Fig. 555] represents the suggestion of Braun, to make a second anastomotic opening between the small intestine above the stomach opening and below it, hoping that in this way bile, for instance, may pass directly through this opening, which it will first meet, into the intestine below, and thus not pass on and into the stomach. Others have divided the loop of jejunum after making the second anastomosis, in this way planting the efferent portion of the bowel in the stomach and then planting the afferent portion of the bowel into the side of the efferent part. This is the so-called Y-gastrojejunostomy. Roux does much the same thing, save that his method is all carried out behind the colon instead of in front of it. The principal argument in favor of the use of the Murphy button, in this procedure, is that vicious circle is less frequent after its use than after most of the suture methods, all of which would simply indicate that vicious circle is largely a matter of valve formation, and that by the time the button is loosened and passed on the danger period seems to have elapsed, and the current in the new direction to be well established. Nevertheless the button is now discarded by almost everyone in favor of the suture.

Fig. 554