Gastric devascularization: a useful salvage procedure for massive hemorrhagic gastritis

Due to poor results with conventional operative therapy for diffuse hemorrhagic gastritis (DHG), a prospective evaluation of gastric devascularization was performed on 21 patients. Sepsis, alcoholism, and steroid abuse were the common etiologic factors. In spite of the fact that these were all critically ill patients, all stopped bleeding with this operation and only two rebled (9%). The average operating time was 84 minutes. There were two operative complications and gastric necrosis did not occur. The mortality was high (38%) due to the primary disease. Gastric devascularization is a useful salvage procedure for the patient with DHG because it can be accomplished rapidly, with few complications, has a low rebleed rate, and causes no permanent sequelae. Since this procedure causes severe gastric mucosal ischemia, it casts doubt only on the importance of this mechanism alone as the cause of "stress ulceration."