Gastric devascularization: an alternate approach to the surgical treatment of massive, diffuse hemorrhage from...

During a three-year period on the surgical services at the University of Texas in San Antonio, eight critically ill patients had various types of gastric devascularization to control erosive hemorrhagic gastritis. Among these patients were two women and one child. There were five chronic alcoholics, one aspirin abuser, one severely burned patient, and one patient with sepsis. Esophagogastroscopy was used in six patients but was diagnostic in only three. All of the patients were given intensive medical preoperative care, including an average of eight units of blood each. In four of the five known alcoholics, preoperative tests showed severely deranged clotting function. All of the patients received at least a four-point gastric vessel ligation. In addition, four had gastrotomies, three had vagotomies and pyloroplasties, and two had "complete" gastric vessel ligation. There was no significant rebleeding in five patients. Of the three patients with significant recurrent gastric hemorrhage, two were chronic alcoholics with poor clotting function, and neither was considered operable. One patient, the child, had massive rebleeding one week after gastric devascularization with vagotomy and pyloroplasty and required a subtotal gastrectomy. Of the four patients who ultimately died, three were chronic alcoholics and one had sepsis.