Taste alteration after gastrectomy in patients with gastric cancer

To investigate the relationship between changes in taste due to surgical procedures and other clinical factors, we performed a detailed investigation of taste alteration in patients who underwent gastrectomy.

Questionnaires on taste alteration were distributed to patients who visited our outpatient clinic from July 2018 to January 2019 for the postoperative evaluation of gastric cancer. Associations of clinical characteristics with changes in sensitivity to the four major taste types (sweet, sour, salty, and bitter) were examined.

Of the 243 eligible patients, 42 (17.3%) experienced taste alteration after gastrectomy; taste sensitivity decreased in 21 (8.6%) patients and increased in 31 (12.7%) patients. The frequency of a decreased sensitivity to sweet was significantly higher in patients who underwent total gastrectomy than in those who underwent distal gastrectomy (18.8% vs. 3.3%, P = 0.001). Patients who underwent total gastrectomy were significantly more likely than those who received distal gastrectomy to experience increased sensitivity to sour (12.5% vs. 2.2%, respectively; P = 0.004) and bitter (15.6% vs. 3.8%, respectively; P = 0.007) tastes. A multivariate analysis revealed that total gastrectomy was an independent risk factor for total taste alteration.

Patients who underwent total gastrectomy showed a high likelihood of both loss and gain of taste sensitivity.