The anatomical basis for gastric mobilization in total oesophagectomy

Following the injection of suitable media, the arterial tree of 22 post-mortem human stomachs was studied by angiography, or corrosion and micro-dissection. In stomachs infused exclusively by the right gastroepiploic artery, i.e. following ligation of all other gastric vessels on the stomach wall, both methods produced good fundal filling, while demonstrating consistently poor filling of a strip of stomach wall along the lesser curve. These findings do not support the assertion that in operations involving mobilization and transposition of the stomach the viability of the fundus is critically dependent upon an anastomotic circulation involving the extragastric portion of the left gastric vessels, but rather indicate that these vessels can, if required, be excised with impunity in most patients, provided that there is no extensive atherosclerosis. However, these findings indicate that such a procedure may impair the blood supply of the lesser curve, and they provide an anatomical explanation of the occasional occurrence of necrosis of the lesser curve following proximal gastric vagotomy.